TEHRAN -- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to arrive in Tehran on Monday.

Turkey’s prime minister will have meetings with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, First Vice President Mohammadreza Rahimi, Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani, and Foreign Minter Manouchehr Mottaki during his two-day stay in the Islamic Republic.
The meetings will focus on a variety of regional and international issues such as energy deals, nuclear programs, and the expansion of bilateral ties between Tehran and Ankara.
Eighteen Turkish MPs and Turkey’s ministers of foreign affairs, energy, and foreign trade are accompanying Erdogan on his trip to Tehran.
The visit by the Turkish delegation, which is composed of 200 high-ranking political and economic officials, is of great importance.
Erdogan traveled to Pakistan on Saturday for a two-day trip ahead of his visit to Iran.
Following Turkish efforts to bring Afghanistan and Pakistan together in their campaigns against Taliban insurgencies, Erdogan will also try to mediate between Pakistan and Iran, whose ties were strained over the October 18 suicide bombing in southeast Iran that killed 42 people. Iran says the bombers are based in Pakistan.
“We will try to help Pakistan and Iran deal with any problems they might have after the terrorist attack,” said a senior Turkish government official.
Erdogan’s visit to Iran comes two weeks after Turkey barred Israel from a NATO exercise, a decision that angered Israel and prompted rare criticism from Turkey’s ally the United States. The war games were cancelled after other nations, including the United States and Italy, refused to take part without Israel.
According to Reuters, the Erdogan’s visit to Iran -- amid foreign policy worries -- adds to concerns that Ankara may be slowly turning its back on its Western allies and seeking to regain its status as a regional power in the Middle East.
Following what Turks saw as Arab betrayal in World War One, Turkey made joining the elite club of Western powers its number one foreign policy objective, joining NATO in 1952 and first applying to join the European Economic Community in 1963.
Nearly 50 years on, Muslim Turkey is still kept at arms length by the European Union, but now having the world’s 17th biggest economy, and a half-million-strong army, it has the potential to become a powerhouse in its eastern backyard.
Erdogan has steadily expanded Turkey’s influence in the Middle East since his Islamist-rooted AK Party took power in 2002. He travels to Iran at a time of worsening ties between Turkey and its regional ally Israel and as Ankara hails recent bilateral deals with Syria and Iraq as signaling a “new era”.
But some analysts warn an erosion of Ankara’s Western oriented foreign policy could have long-term consequences for NATO and for U.S. efforts from Afghanistan to Iraq.
“There is a growing perception that Turkey is favoring its ties with countries such as Iran and Syria at the expense of Israel and the West and this is causing some concern,” said Fadi Hakura, a Middle East expert at London’s Chatham House.
Diplomatic relations between Turkey and Israel have suffered since Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip last winter, in which Erdogan accused Israel of committing crimes against humanity.
The spat over the cancellation of the war games was raging when Turkey and Syria, Israel’s foe, signed a raft of deals that Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu hailed as proof Ankara and Damascus shared “a common fate, history and future”.
“It might be a coincidence of events, but it all shows a particular direction of Turkey’s foreign policy,” Hakura said.
Strategic location
Soner Cagaptay, Turkish research coordinator from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said a deep change was underway in Turkey’s foreign policy under the AK Party.
“The cancellation of the military exercises might be the beginning of the unraveling of Turkey-Israel relations,” said Cagaptay, who is often critical of the government.
“NATO is a security club, not an ideological or religious club, but for the first time Turkey said: ‘We don’t want to do this because Israel is working with NATO.’ This raises questions if you think NATO’s commitments in the next 10 years will be in Muslim countries. Turkey could opt out from NATO exercises.”
Other analysts disagree with the view that Turkey is taking an “Islamic” foreign policy course, as the AK Party’s secularist opponents say.
They point to a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama in April as proof U.S.-Turkish ties are in good shape.
Turkey has also said it is willing to mediate between Iran and the West over Tehran’s nuclear enrichment program.
Bilateral trade reached $7 billion in 2008. Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told Reuters this week he hoped the two countries could finalize a $3.5 billion deal to develop part of the world’s largest gas field in Iran.