![Turkey and Iran's presidents meet amid heated relations and a proxy competition in the Caucasus a few years after a the nagorno-karabakh war](https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/turkey-iran-relations-caucasus-war-nagorno-karabakh-12202022-1.jpg?w=519&h=259&crop=1)
If Iran’s moves over the past couple months are any indication, Turkey’s growing influence in the South Caucasus, especially its alliance with Azerbaijan, has heightened Tehran’s sense of unease. Iran now sees the prospect of an arc of Turkey-aligned states emerging as a powerful Turkic alliance along its northern borders.