Which Is Better Suited Regionally: Iran or Turkey?

[Nema98]

Between these two neighbors which country is better off in the region?

1)In terms of military.?
2)Diplomacy, and by that I mean alliances and influence?
3) Economically, short term and long term?

I’ll give my take on the first one:

In most cases I would place my bet with Turkey, militarily it has been a member of NATO since 1952, the premier military alliance in the globe. It’s military is much better equipped.

Iran on the other hand is not part of any military alliance, talk of joining the Shanghai Cooperation Council, has not occurred. Neither China nor Russia have been beating down the door to let Iran in, especially China. It has been an observer for over a decade and while Russia has hinted to allow Iran membership, China has had other ideas.
Not to mention SCO is nowhere on the level of NATO. But that is another thread.
Last point on military, Iran’s war toys have been exposed for being fakes, knockoffs of old U.S and Soviet hardware.
Iran probably is superior to Turkey only in terms of missile stockpile, and this is partly due to it being unable to purchase new fighter jets to replace the old U.S 1970’s era jets.

[Qin_Shi_Huangdi]

Turkey in all respects. Despite the misrule of the reactionary Islamist government doing their best to destroy the legacy of Ataturk, Turkey still has a modern military that can rely upon NATO equipment and support (additionally Turks are generally superb fighters), has extensive trade relations with Europe, less reliant upon oil for its economy, is not subject to severe sanctions, and is Sunni thus putting it in less of a conflict with rest of the Muslim world.

[Trinopus]

Turkey is also more “plugged in” to the diplomatic channels of the world’s great powers. Turkey’s PM can make a phone call to Japan’s PM and have a really good chance of it being answered. Iran is far more isolated, in large part by their own choices.

(I know I should grow up and get over the embassy seizure of 1979, but, frankly, it still rankles with a lot of Americans and others in the west. By rejecting these key provisions of the diplomatic traditions of the civilized world, Iran signaled an unwillingness to engage in meaningful dialogue. The current round of nuclear weapons negotiations indicate a greater mind-set of cooperation and engagement. There has been much improvement since 1979.)

[Steken]

@Nema98

Iran on the other hand is not part of any military alliance, talk of joining the Shanghai Cooperation Council, has not occurred. Neither China nor Russia have been beating down the door to let Iran in, especially China. It has been an observer for over a decade and while Russia has hinted to allow Iran membership, China has had other ideas.

I thought the main reason Iran hasn’t joined the S.C.O. is the fact that it’s under U.N. sanctions, rather than Chinese resistance? Is that not so?

@Trinopus

Turkey is also more “plugged in” to the diplomatic channels of the world’s great powers. Turkey’s PM can make a phone call to Japan’s PM and have a really good chance of it being answered.

Sure, though while both Japan and the EU are stepping away - partly under American pressure - China and (increasingly) India are stepping up to replace them as Iranian trading partners:

Iranian trade with the global south and China has risen by 70% […] to $150 billion. […] It pivoted to Asia with great success before the phrase occurred to President Obama.

China is so insouciant about US pressure to sanction Iran’s trade that it recently announced a plan to expand Sino-Iranian trade alone to $200 billion by 2025. (It was about $52 billion in 2014.) And Sino-Iranian trade was only $39 billion in 2013, so the rate of increase is startling. China is interested in Iran’s non-oil exports, a harbinger of the post-fossil-fuels future.

[…] In 2014, the previous success of US arm-twisting in getting India to reduce Iranian oil imports was not reproduced. Oil imports alone went up 42%. Sanctions are […] crumbling in Asia.