Iran Fights Türkiye by Mourning a 500-Year-Old Defeat

Recently, Iranian state television livestreamed a mourning ceremony titled “Chaldoran Mourners.” Named after a historic battle between the Ottoman and Safavid empires five centuries ago, the event appeared to be less about history and more about fueling a propaganda campaign targeting Türkiye's leadership and the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Türkiye have grown increasingly tense, particularly following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.

Türkiye has successfully replaced Iran as a dominant power in Syria, cementing its influence in the region. Turkish officials have accused Iran of “inaction” regarding Israel’s actions against Palestinians—a charge Iran had previously aimed at Türkiye, citing its trade relations with Israel.

Over the past month, Iranian officials have implicitly and explicitly accused Türkiye of “treason” and complicity in the fall of Assad’s regime. Some officials have even labeled Türkiye as member of the “Axis of Evil” alongside Israel and the United States. Rather than issuing formal statements, Tehran has primarily used media platforms to voice its grievances.

However, the December 9, 2024, livestreamed mourning ceremony to “honor the martyrs of the Battle of Chaldoran”, during which the eulogist explicitly attacked President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish officials, added a provocative layer to this unofficial war of words between the Islamic Republic and Turkey.

Iran has escalated its rhetoric, invoking the 16th-century Battle of Chaldoran to draw parallels between the Ottoman emperor Sultan Selim I and Türkiye's current leaders while celebrating the role of the Safavid king Shah Ismail. This symbolic comparison followed remarks by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who criticized Iran’s deep involvement in Syria for failing to shield Gaza from a devastating Israeli offensive.

Fidan also mocked the “Axis of Resistance,” the coalition comprising the Islamic Republic and its allied militias and political organizations, positioning it as ineffective in countering Israel and the U.S.

Mourning for “Chaldoran Martyrs”

The Iranian state TV livestreamed the religious ceremony to mourn “Chaldoran Martyrs” on December 9, 2024, held in Ardebil, a city in Iran’s Azerbaijan province. It began with a speech by Hassan Ameli, Ardebil’s Friday Prayers Leader, who described the Battle of Chaldoran as a “war of aggression.” Ameli also criticized Reza Shah, the founder of Iran’s Pahlavi dynasty in 1925, accusing him—without evidence—of making territorial concessions to Turkey

The ceremony continued with a eulogist who dragged in the age-old conflict between Shia and Sunni Muslims and linked the events in Syria to this sectarian narrative, declaring that the, “enemies of the Alawite country must be punched in the face”. While the Assad family, which ruled Syria from 1971 to 2024, were Alawites (an ethnoreligious Shia splinter group), the majority of Syria’s population —74 per cent—are Sunni Muslims while only 10% are Alawites, contrary to the eulogist’s implication.

Amid the ceremony, a young man from the congregation stood up and, speaking in Turkish, recited the names of figures in early Islam who opposed Prophet Mohammad and his cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib whom the Shias believe was the true successor to the prophet. He accused the Ottoman emperor Sultan Selim I of supporting these historical figures.

The “Axis of Heresy” is standing against the Islamic Republic with all the power at its disposal, he added. Branding Türkiye's current leaders, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, as “bastards,” he proclaimed that descendants of Shah Ismail would “soon raise the flag of Islam in Baku and Nakhchivan,” Azerbaijan’s capital and an exclave.

This tirade made by an anonymous young man was enough to provoke Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Azerbaijan to summon Jafar Aghaei, Iran’s chargé d'affaires, to “strongly” protest against the insults directed at the country and its president. “Once again, Iran oversteps its boundaries against Azerbaijan,” was the title of a report on the website of Qafqaz Media, a media outlet close to the government of Azerbaijan Republic.

Although Türkiye has not issued an official response, Turkish social media users reacted strongly, with many using offensive language against Shias. 

In response to the backlash, Mojtaba Damirchilou, Director-General of the Eurasian Department at Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reiterated Tehran’s commitment to fostering friendly relations with neighboring countries, particularly Azerbaijan.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Society of Ardebil Bazaar and the Board of Trustees of Ardebil Grand Mosque issued a statement clarifying that the comments made during the ceremony reflected individual sentiments and not Iran’s official stance. 

Playing the Card of the Shia-Sunni Divide

In recent years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has increasingly referred to those killed in the 16th-century Battle of Chaldoran as “martyrs.” Occasionally, it has marked the battle’s anniversary with commemorative ceremonies.

For example, “27,000 martyrs” of the battle were commemorated in 2014, on the 515th anniversary of the battle, in a ceremony which was held in Chaldoran, now a county in Iran’s West Azerbaijan province. During the event, the governor of Chaldoran highlighted Iran’s resilience, saying, “Iranians resisted the aggression with the least possible means at their disposal.” 

Historically, these ceremonies were conducted without much public attention or overt political messaging. However, in recent years, anti-Turkish sentiments are clearly manifested.

At the same time, some historians aligned with Islamic Republic have sought to reinterpret the Battle of Chaldoran with a religious lens. “Historically, Chaldoran must be viewed as a precedent for the concept of martyr and martyrdom in the land of Iran…and a clear example of ‘sacred defense’ that occured over  500 years ago,” wrote the website Asr-e Iran in 2022. Citing the Shia theologian Allameh Mohammad-Taqi Jafari, it added that “If people knew what had happened in this location, they would not enter it without ablution,” meaning that Chaldoran must be viewed by the Shias as “sacred land”.

Nevertheless, historian close to the regime mostly tried to ignore the Sunni-Shia divide and view the Battle of Chaldoran from a purely geopolitical angle.

“It would be a big lie that the Battle of Chaldoran was rooted in a religious conflict between the Shias and the Sunnis,” said Mohammad Hossein Amir Erdosh, author of Islamic Unity and Islamic Awakening: Concepts and Background. In a 2015 interview, he said “Most of the wars between the Safavids and the Ottomans, often portrayed as Shia-Sunni conflicts were geopolitical struggles with only a thin religious veneer.”

Critics, including a website affiliated with Azerbaijani separatists, accuse Iran of adopting a new strategy against Türkiye following what they describe as its “humiliating defeat” by Ankara in Syria. These critics argue that the Islamic Republic is now “playing the Shia-Sunni discord card” to further its agenda. One notable aspect of this alleged strategy is the use of the Turkish language during the recent ceremony commemorating the Battle of Chaldoran. The ceremony, which was livestreamed on state TV and lasted over an hour, featured most speakers addressing the audience in Turkish. Furthermore, “The Islamic Republic hopes that by making a prominent event out of the Battle of Chaldoran — a symbol of animosity between the Safavids and the Ottomans — it would succeed in alienating Azerbaijan from Turkey.”

What Happened in the Battle of Battle of Chaldoran?

Around the year 1500, the regions of eastern Türkiye and northwestern Iran were swept by powerful social and political movements that led to the rise of two formidable empires: the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid Persian Empire. The Ottomans, under Sunni Islam, expanded westward, while the Safavids, followers of Shia Islam, also called Qizilbash moved eastward to consolidate their power. 

This rivalry was just territorial but enhanced deeply due to different religious ideologies, with both empires claiming to represent the “true form of Islam.” The conflict came to a head when Ottoman Sultan Selim I, who had seized power in 1512 by deposing his father Bayezid II and eliminating many rivals, turned his attention eastward to address the growing Safavid threat under Shah Ismail I.

The decisive clash occurred on August 23, 1514, near the town of Chaldoran in northwestern Iran. The Ottoman forces, numbering between 60,000 and 100,000, were highly organized and equipped with advanced artillery, giving them a significant technological advantage. In contrast, the Safavid army, estimated at 40,000 to 80,000 soldiers, lacked artillery and relied solely on traditional weaponry and cavalry tactics.

The battle resulted in a crushing defeat for the Safavid forces. Shah Ismail was injured and narrowly escaped capture. Following the loss, he retreated into seclusion, abandoning governance and never participating in another military campaign.

The Ottomans, under Sultan Selim I, capitalized on their victory by annexing Eastern Anatolia and Upper Mesopotamia, significantly expanding their empire.

The Battle of Chaldoran is often described as the “battle that created the modern Middle East” with “results that still reverberate in the modern Middle East.”

The Fight Over Regional Influence

Now there are people in Iran who are reinterpreting the centuries-old battle as a struggle between a Shia country and a Sunni country vying for leadership of the Islamic world. They are hoping that this time, the “leader of the Shia country” would emerge victorious.

This approach is likely to aggravate tensions between Iran and Türkiye. Islamic Republic views Türkiye as the primary beneficiary of recent developments in Syria.

“The competition between Iran and Türkiye will not end with Syria and is likely to spill over into Iraq, especially now that Türkiye has gained self-confidence,” wrote the newspaper Vatan-e Emrooz. “Of course, many players contributed to the downfall of Assad, but only one played a decisive security and geopolitical role and that was Türkiye.”

Turkish officials have not held back in their criticism of Iran. After the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, on December 19, 2024, said that “the presence of Iranians in Syria was unable to prevent a vast genocide in Gaza.” He previously dismissed the so-called “Axis of Resistance”—a coalition of the Islamic Republic and its allied militias—as a “joke.”