While the West cracks down on commerce with Iran, Turkey's burgeoning breed of small businessmen, the 'Anatolian Tigers', is quietly building a new trade bridge to the Middle East.
In these bustling Istanbul sidestreets Turkish and Iranian traders carry on the age-old Islamic hawala system of money transfer, relying more on trust rather than written records.
"With the hawala, trust is very important for business, and it's there in our relationship with the Iranians," said Ozan Ziylan, who oversees exports of several companies within Turkey's private MLS Holding from his Istanbul office.
Relations between Turkey and Iran reached new heights earlier this month when the NATO member and EU aspirant voted against U.S.-led United Nations sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, arguing such steps only hampered diplomacy.
That decision may have cost Ankara some capital among western allies, including U.S. political and military leaders who see Turkey, still, as a diplomatic bridgehead to the Middle East with all its complexities.
But Ankara's unprecedented warming with Iran in recent years has made billions of dollars for the Anatolian Tigers, so named for their preponderance in the hinterland of central Anatolia.
Trade has been growing ever since the AK Party of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan swept to power eight years ago.
The AK Party considers itself a Muslim version of Western Europe's Christian Democrat parties, conservative on social issues and liberal on economic ones.
The AK Party's detractors accuse it of Islamist leanings, and often point to Turkey's deepening ties with governments that the West doesn't trust as a sign of where its inclinations lie.
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution the influential army has regarded Tehran as the biggest threat to the secular state.
Bussiness, Diplonancy and Politics
This year, Iran is likely to be the 12th largest customer for Turkish exports, purchasing mostly chemicals, textiles, and machinery from small and medium-sized businesses across Turkey.
In 2009, Turkey exported $2.025 billion worth of goods to the Islamic Republic, up more than 500 percent from $334 million in 2002, when the AK Party took power.
Business is also increasing with Syria, with which Turkey came to the brink of armed conflict as recently as 1998, and Iraq, where easing political relations in the Kurdish north are also opening up markets for Turkey.
The implications are broad. A new throughdraft of trade across eastern frontiers that have too long constituted a virtual commercial dead-end could also ease a poverty in the Turkish southeast that has helped fuel Kurdish separatism.
"It's the formation of a capital base to correspond to a foreign policy that's been a long time coming," said Mehmet Besimoglu, economist at Istanbul-based Oyak Invest.
The European Union is by far the main buyer of Turkish goods and the biggest investor here, and it is likely to remain so, but analysts see the government looking to diversify ties.
"Considering low growth and other risks (in Europe) the government might be trying to find a hedge for themselves," said Besimoglu.
Turkey's increasing focus on the East has caused concern among some western policy makers that European Union-oriented reforms may fall by the wayside.
But those eastern ties also, arguably, strengthen the country's strategic credentials and value as a western ally.
"If you're pro-Turkey and you look at it as a strategic country, you see the benefits in Ankara starting dialogues with different countries, rather than trying to isolate them," said Wolfango Piccoli of Eurasia Group.
Turkey has always sold itself to sceptics in the EU just so; as a political and commercial bridge to the Middle East.
Gas
Last year, nearly 20 percent of Turkey's ex
