During the recent years, Turkey has put immense efforts in healing relations with its neighbors, establishing closer ties regarding various interest areas, be it economic, cultural or political issues and acting as a facilitator in its close environment. However, once one looks back in history, Turkey during the 1900s conducted a very different foreign policy strategy and viewed its close neighbors with suspicion and mistrust. This study argues that there has been a reassessment in Turkish Foreign Policy which has helped Turkey to acquire a new role in the Middle East. In this regard, this research aims to analyze whether there has been a changeover in Turkish Foreign Policy and if so, what were the consequences regarding Turkey’s relations with its neighbors. Along with that purpose, this study will elaborate on the factors which have shaped Turkish Foreign Policy, primarily on economic aspirations. Furthermore, the goal of this research is to focus particularly on Turkey’s relations towards its Middle Eastern neighbors. Consequently, this research will help to understand fully Turkey’s recent involvement regarding the Arab uprisings and increasing commitment to the Middle East.

The book examines Turkey’s new foreign policy operating in the new international system. Especially with the AKP government, Turkish foreign policy principles have been changed and/or modified radically. Therefore, new foreign policy mentality has to be analyzed in detail. The book also focuses on the “strategic depth” paradigm of Prof. Dr. Ahmet Davutoglu. In his book, Davutoglu inspects the Turkey’s place within the world politics and its relations neighboring countries through historical-religious lense. In order to understand this new mentality in the Turkish foreign policy, historical developments of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic has been covered. The book mainly focuses on following subjects: analysis of Turkish foreign policy framework, changes in Turkish government’s foreign policy paradigm, reflections of new approaches in the Turkish foreign policy, Turkey’s shifting foreign policy and the new Turkish foreign policy’s future, continuity and change in Turkish foreign policy and lastly implications of Turkey’s new foreign policy doctrine. Türk dış politikası uzun yıllar gündem yaratma yerine, başka aktörlerin oluşturduğu gündemleri takip etme ve müttefiklik adı altında ülke çıkarları ile örtüşmeyen, hatta zaman zaman çelişen seçeneklerin peşine takılma çizgileri arasında sıkışıp kalmıştır. Özellikle son on yılda Türk dış politikasındaki önceliklerin değiştiğine, Türkiye'nin pasif dış politika gömleğini üzerinden çıkardığına tanıklık ediyoruz. 2002 yılından itibaren onu uluslararası sistemde düzen kurucu merkez bir ülke konumuna taşıyacak alt yapının inşa edildiği siyasi istikrar yanında kaydedilen ekonomik büyüme ve kalkınma Türkiye'nin kendine güvenini artırdı. Başbakan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan'ın sık sık altını çizdiği "kendine güven" vurgusu dış politika kararlarının alınmasında önemli bir dayanak oldu. Avrupa Birliği, ortak bir dış politika inşasında üyeleri arasındaki belirsizliklerle ve ekonomik krizlerle mücadele ederken, ABD başlattığı ve sürdürdüğü savaşların aşındırdığı imajını tamir etme çabası sürdürürken, Türkiye kaybettiği yılları Afrika, Balkanlar ve Güney Amerika açılımlarıyla telafi etmeyi başardı. Stratejik derinlik, merkez ve düzen kurucu ülke olmak, komşularla sıfır sorun, proaktif dış politika gibi kavramları siyasete dönüştüren ve uygulamaya koyan yeni Türk dış politikasının tasarımcısı Dışişleri Bakanı Ahmet Davutoğlu, gündemi takip eden değil önceden belirleyen bir liderlik sergilemektedir. Dış politika tutumlarına göre ülkeler iddialı ve iddiasız olarak basitçe ikiye ayrılabilir. Tahmin edileceği üzere ikinci grup hayli kalabalık olduğu halde, birinci gruba ABD gibi, Rusya gibi, Çin gibi sayılı ülkeler girer... Türkiye'nin son on yılda izlediği dış politika tutumu ve hamleleri ikinci gruptan çıkıp birinci gruba girme çabası içinde değerlendirilebilir. Türkiye’nin tarihi, coğrafyası, sahip olduğu kültürel değerler onu böyle bir konuma doğal olarak itmekle beraber, Dışişleri Bakanı Ahmet Davutoğlu’nun danışman olduğu dönemden beri savunduğu ''stratejik derinlik'' felsefesi bu kabul üzerine oturuyor. Türkiye'nin getirmiş olduğu yeni dış politika anlayışı sayesinde bölgesinde artan jeoekonomik etkinliğini hisseden Arap ülkeleri, komşularla sıfır problem modelinin açmış olduğu fırsat alanlarına nüfus etmeye başlamışlardır. Türkiye, Ürdün, Lübnan ve Suriye'yi içine alan Yüksek Düzeyli Stratejik İşbirliği Konseyi tesis edilmesi ve bu ülkeler arasında serbest ticaret ve dolaşım alanı oluşturulması ve vizelerin kaldırılmasının altında bahsetmiş olduğumuz yeni güvenlik kültürünün dinamizmi yatmaktadır. Bu tür girişimler ilişkilerin doğasını sıfır toplamlı oyun politikasından kazan kazan politikasına dönüştürmektedir. Özellikle ülkeler arası ekonomik bağımlılığın artması ise bizi ilerde yaşanacak olan bölgesel krizlerin çabuk ve düşük maliyetlerle aşılmasını sağlayacak mekanizmalar geliştirmesine zemin hazırlayacak ve potansiyel çatışma alanlarının devreye girme ihtimalini miminuma çekecektir. Bu anlamda Türkiye'nin son dönemde jeo-ekonomik anlamda kazanmış olduğu dinamizmin bölgesel aktörler tarafından dikkatle izlendiği bilinmektedir.

Tracing the evolution of Turkey's foreign policy, from isolationism to regional agreements and organizations, this study explores the country's new international posture. Rubin (strategic studies, Bar- Ilan University) and Kirisci (political science, Bogazici University) assess Turkey's policy toward Europe, Russia, Central Asia, and the United States, as well as its growing role in the Middle East. They address the issues central to Turkey's economic, energy, and water policy. They also discuss the interest groups and institutions affecting the policymaking process and the challenges facing the country's rapidly urbanizing and industrializing economy.

Linked by ethnic and religious affinities to two post-Cold War crisis areas—the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia—Turkey is positioned to play an influential role in the promotion of regional economic cooperation and in taking new approaches to security. In this book, experts from Turkey, Europe, and the United States address key aspects of Turkey

Download PDF for free from: http://martenscentre.eu/publications/dealing-rising-power-turkeys-transformation-and-its-implications-eu Turkey's growing assertiveness on the international stage, difficulties with EU accession, rapidly rising economy, and the long and controversial reign of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) are all necessitating a need for analysis. The present study of the Centre for European Studies presents two papers which look at Turkey and the AKP from different perspectives. Svante Cornell's paper argues that AKP has moved away from democratic reforms and that Turkey's 'zero problems with the neighbours' approach to international relations has failed. Gerald Knaus maintains that the AKP and the EU's influence on Turkey have effected radical changes in the balance of power between the military and civilian actors, thus bringing Turkey somewhat closer to Western democratic standards. Both authors advocate continued EU engagement with Turkey, irrespective of the progress of accession negotiations.

This volume discusses the entry of Greece and Turkey to NATO in 1952 from the perspective of history and international relations. The chapters were originally collected in 2012 to mark the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the accession of the two states to NATO. The focus is not on the diplomatic/political events that led to the accession (a subject which has already been extensively discussed in the available bibliography), but expands on a reassessment of this event for the two states as well as for the Balkans, covering aspects of the wider post-war period and providing perspectives for the policies of Turkey, Greece and NATO until the present day. This book was originally published as a special issue of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies.

This book sketches an institutional political economy framework to discuss the interaction between development and foreign policy in the global South with reference to Turkey. The authors argue that although the developmental state framework has commonly been employed to explore domestic economic development processes without analytically focusing on the foreign policy dimension, developmental state institutions are highly relevant in the creation and pursuit of a development-oriented foreign policy at a time of growing uncertainty marred by geopolitical and geoeconomic tensions. The book develops a two-level ‘Regime Coherence Framework’ to account for the domestic and international dimensions of development-oriented foreign policy. The main argument posits that the development regime in Turkey and associated foreign policies lack coherence, due to weak institutional complementarities between economic governance, state-business relations, and financial statecraft at the domestic-external nexus.

EU membership provides member states with a new perception of their place in the world; their foreign policies very much influenced by their involvement in the politics of Brussels. The candidate countries also go through the same experience. The membership prospect however, presented a serious challenge to Turkish foreign policy and it was obvious from the moment Turkey was declared as a candidate country in 1999 that its membership perspective was linked to the solution of problems in its domestic and foreign relations. In this book, Özlem Terzi examines the influence of the European Union on the making of Turkish foreign policy since it was declared a candidate country. By comparing an issue specific analysis alongside an actor-based focus, Terzi questions whether such a transformation in the self-perceptions of Turkish policy makers is actually taking place, and whether the policy making process with respect to foreign policy issues expands to include new actors, like the civil society, thus democratizing the way foreign policy is made. Case study rich and packed with interviews with actors involved in policy making in Brussels and Ankara, this book enables the reader to correctly discern the factors that make the Turkish case unique and to reveal whether certain aspects of Turkey's pre-accession process are not as unique as we think. 'The Influence of the European Union on Turkish Foreign Policy' is a valuable and informative contribution for students, researchers and scholars interested on the transformative power of the EU and the role of Turkey's relationship with its neighbours.