Therefore, and needless to say, the discussion went far beyond recent events in the Middle East and North Africa and we ended up have a very lively exchange on the direction of Turkish foreign policy.
One of the speakers, the well known academic and Turkey expert, Professor Philip Robins, from Oxford University, stated that Turkey’s foreign policy is best understood as a 360 degree policy that reflects the geographic position of the country. Indeed Turkey’s foreign policy has changed considerably over the past years. This “shift” is frequently seen as Turkey moving away from its traditional allies in the West and forging much closer ties with the states of the Middle East. Ankara’s increasingly warm relations with Iran and its support of so-called radical countries and groups (such as Hamas) have been viewed by many in the West as being against their interests. Furthermore, it is happening at a time when relations with the West are not as harmonious as they used to be, with EU membership talks stalled and ties with the US being more erratic and unpredictable than in days gone by.
Nevertheless, I believe this to be the wrong perception. Rather, Turkey has developed a more complex, multilayered and integrated set of neighborhood policies and tools. For many years Turkey’s foreign policy was tiled to strongly favor its allies in the West, and in particular the US. The Turkey-US partnership had its origins in the Cold War and was developed especially by their cooperation against the Soviet Union.
For 50 years after the end of World War II, the US and Turkey were close allies based on mutual interests. Even after the end of the Cold War Turkey’s foreign policy remained quite unidirectional, with Turkey keeping itself strongly bound to the West -- remaining a staunch ally of NATO -- while the rest of the world, and in particular many parts of Turkey’s direct neighborhood, was rather ignored or in some cases alienated, whether this be the Middle East, Russia or elsewhere.
This policy paid Turkey few dividends, only serving to consolidate regional instability. This has now changed. The days of a reactive, aggressive and hard-power policy are almost gone -- not totally because continued friction with Greece and Turkey’s vast military presence in Cyprus are reminders that even with this change Turkey is still a formidable force that still has a hard-power element (as demonstrated by Turkey’s naval forces when they entered Republic of Cyprus waters in 2009 in connection with gas exploration).
Nevertheless, overall, Turkey’s foreign policy has become more Europeanized, focusing on using the European style of soft-power negotiation and business-first as a way of conducting foreign policy, taking a more proactive approach. Turkey’s previous image of being the “sick man of Europe” has now disappeared. During Ankara’s two-year stint as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council Turkey relearned global activism and the country is now increasing its power relative to most of its neighbors and exerting a gravitational pull, with itself at the center, whether that be economically or politically.
In the Middle East in particular, Turkey’s policy has seen a dramatic change and Ankara is now responding to new opportunities in the region with increased commercial engagement with the Middle East both in Turkey’s direct neighborhood but also as far afield as the Gulf states. This has included lifting visa regimes, clearly making it much easier to travel, invest and move capital.
Turkey is also now frequently cited as a model of development for the Muslim world, being the most democratic state in the region and in some way being seen as the “dream” of many of the populations of other Muslim states. However, while the West acknowledges the increasingly important position of Turkey, sometimes Turkey’s actions and, more often these days, remarks by its leadership (in particular, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan) leave the West confused and sometimes even flabbergasted.
This has been the case with Libya, when Turkey set itself apart from not only its Western allies but also many Muslim nations, too, presenting a very contradictory approach and criticizing the West, including the US very vocally. Turkey has clearly misread political events, and the military events that have followed which have now left the country in a far from comfortable situation with both the Libyan opposition and its NATO allies.
Turkey is still a country in transition in both its domestic and foreign policies and the journey to obtaining a real and effective 360 degree foreign policy is far from over, with Turkey endeavoring to combine Western ideals and values with inherent social, cultural and religious values. This is not an easy task and may still take many years to complete.
