In addition, the United States encouraged Turkey to get more involved in the region, to counter a possible rise of the Iranian influence. Hence, the diplomatic landscape since the fall of the Soviet Union tended towards the construction of two networks of alliances opposed to each other: from one part a pro-western horizontal axis linking Baku, Tbilisi and Ankara by drawing a geopolitical EastWest line, and from the other part a vertical axis linking Moscow, Yerevan and Tehran by drawing a geopolitical North-South line110. Today, Armenia and Iran therefore consider their role once again as a fence against the growing influence of Turkey in the Caucasus and even in Central Asia. 2.
Influence of internal political changes
These strategic directions responded both to international commitments and to the own interests of the local actors. However, a series of internal political developments has brought some significant changes during the 1990s and 2000s. As we have seen earlier, Azerbaijan adopted a more balanced position between Turkey and Russia after the accession of power of Hedar Alyev in 1994111. This ideological shift allowed the country to secure better relationship with Moscow, although contacts with Iran remained tense due to disagreements over the Caspian Sea oil resources112. In a similar way, the electoral victory of the AKP in Turkey marked the opening of a new chapter of the relationship between Tehran and Ankara. After timid beginnings caused by the necessity for the Turkish Islamists to reassure their European and American allies, the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a series of moves intended to improve relations with its eastern Shiite neighbour in the framework of its “zero-problems with the neighbours” policy113. Since
110
Gaïdz Minassian, « Caucase du Sud : les enjeux de la coopération régionale », in Politique étrangère, N°3 - 2002 - 67e année pp. 715-731 (p.722), available at : http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/polit_0032-342X_2002_num_67_3_5217 [Last accessed September 4, 2012] 111 Charlotte Hille, op.cit., p.268 112 Cf. supra VIII.C.2 113 Varun Vira, Erin Fitzerald and Brandon Fite, “The United States and Iran: Competition involving Turkey and the South Caucasus”, in Anthony Cordesman, Adam Mausner and Aram Nerguizian (dir.), U.S. and Iranian Strategic Competition, Center for Strategic &International Studies, March 2012, chapter 9, p.12, available at:
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