Turkey and Iran during the Cold War

Turkish-Iranian relations during the Cold War up until the establishment of the Islamic regime in Tehran in 1979 were quite similar to what they had been since the early 1930s, when Kemal Ataturk and Reza Shah were able to quash Kurdish resistance to their respective nationalist policies and to establish a definitive frontier. They were dominated throughout by regional security concerns - due to both domestic politics and the actions of the major powers - and to a lesser extent involved economic matters; quite often Turkish-Iranian ties were discussed and issues were settled within the framework of regional organizations. While Kemal Ataturk and Reza Shah had a good personal relationship - with the latter being a great admirer of the Turkish leader's reforms - and generally good relations (though quite business-like in nature) continued under their respective successors, who also shared secular values and, especially in the Cold War environment, a preference for the West, the Turkish and Iranian leadership were not fully trusting of each other's intentions. But they were even less trusting of many of their neighbors.