Turkey’s Interest and Lessons from the US-Israeli War on Iran

The US-Israeli war against Iran forced Turkey into a difficult choice: condemn the aggression without backing Tehran, maintain neutrality while still extracting strategic benefits from the new regional order.

In March, despite reports that Iran had fired ballistic missiles at Turkey, Ankara repeatedly emphasized its neutrality, stating that it would not enter into an anti-Iranian conflict and was aware of efforts to ignite the flames of war.

Certainly, as a western neighbor with a 560-kilometer border, Turkey can be widely affected by any domestic and security developments in Iran. Therefore, by opposing foreign military intervention in Iran, it shows its concern about the wave of migration, power vacuum, and long-term instability in the region. Despite some political and ideological differences with Iran, Turkey does not want Iran to become a secular and Western-oriented country in general.

Turkey and Israel have taken different positions on the Iran war. Turkey has many concerns about Israel and fears negative “provocation” from the Netanyahu government regarding war and peace between the US and Iran. After the war with Iran, Israel has increased its defense cooperation with Greece and Cyprus, targeted bases in Syria, and increased its presence in Lebanon.

Turkey fears the warning “Turkey is the new Iran” and plans such as expanding the sphere of Israeli influence “to Damascus”, the idea of ​​a Greater Israel, the plan of an Israel-India-Greece-Cyprus alliance against Turkey in February 2026 as a source of threat to the whole world, a wider presence of Tel Aviv over influence in the Caucasus and the Mediterranean gas fields, and more direct strategic confrontations in regional........

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