Iran and Turkey in Central Asia

The aim of this paper is to contribute to knowledge regarding a remote region of the world- Central Asia - that is nonetheless of the utmost importance in the geopolitical context of today due to its strategic position as a link between East and West, a space of competition and reinforcement of the great powers. Besides, the region has been, in recent years, attracting the attention of foreign investors due to the existence of large reserves of oil and gas. The central argument is that the regional powers (Iran and Turkey) demonstrate a predominantly economic interest (the search for energy resources) towards the region, pursuing fundamentally realistic policies with regard to it. Alternatively, to the participant and non-participant observation, difficult techniques are to apply to this object of study, we resorted to the semi-structured interview. The field research was done through interviews conducted predominantly in Central Asia with key individuals related to the issues under study. We suggest in the specific case of Iran that the country is inspired by the Chinese policy towards Central Asia, which has shown remarkable vigour in recent years in order to project its power in the regional sphere and to mitigate the effects of Washington’s (essentially) desire to isolate it.