Are Turkey and Iran considered Western countries or Eastern?

Iran clearly does not share much of these things with most nations considered Western. And it doesn't lie in the West, geographically speaking. But then of course, Australia doesn't either. By a great many standards though Australia could be considered 'Western'. read more

Turkey and Iran have heavy mutual influence on each other, due to geographical proximity, linguistic and ethnic relations (e.g. Azerbaijanis, a Turkic people, are the second largest ethnicity in Iran and Kurds, an Iranic people, are the second largest ethnicity in Turkey) many common cultural aspects, shared empires, and conquering by such as the Parthians, Achaemenids, Sassanians, Seljuks, Safavids, Afsharids, Ottomans and Qajars. read more