Turkey's Foreign Policy

Turkey’s Cold War history has received only limited attention from scholars. Most studies focus on conventional questions of either diplomacy or governance, sidelining the history of cultural developments, social movements, and transnational dynamics. Addressing these gaps in the literature, this webinar will feature new and original research on how to make sense of Turkey’s “Cold War experience” during the 1950s–’80s.

This webinar is organized by Alp Yenen (Leiden University) and Jan-Markus Vömel (University of Konstanz).

Presentations by Nadav Solomonovich (University of Haifa), Hüseyin Çiçek (University of Vienna), Çimen Günay-Erkol (Özyeğin University), Sevil Çakır Kılınçoğlu (University of Göttingen), Zeynep Bursa-Millet (CETOBaC/EHESS Paris), Cangül Örnek (Maltepe University), and Eldad Ben Aharon (Leiden University).

This event is connected with Leiden University’s Turkish Studies, DFG Research Network on Contemporary History of Turkey, and Turkey Studies Network in the Low Countries.

This book is conceived as a spin-off of activities and research developed within the PhD program in Cooperation for Peace and Development at the University for Foreigners of Perugia. The academic program has given rise to a wide range of opportunities for several researchers, international experts and scholars. The two most important events were a conference entitled “Wars at the borders of the Europe: uncertainties and perspective in the Mediterranean”, organized in October 2013, and a special session devoted to Turkish foreign policy during the Annual Conference of the Italian Society of Political Science, held in September 2014.

A whole section looking at Turkey’s foreign policy was the main focus of the conference.

The idea to gain a clearer picture of the ‘geopolitical depth’ of Turkish foreign policy emerged during these two con- ferences, and inspired the composition of this book. After decades of neutralist foreign policy, and retracing the ancient history of the Ottoman Empire, over the past years Ankara, under the rule of the AK Party, has started an assertive and emphatic approach modifying its internatio- nal agenda. Turkish action in its extended neighborhood followed the architecture of the ‘strategic depth’ doctrine outlined by the current prime minister Davutoğlu. This doctrine was based on the so called ‘zero-problems with neighbors’ approach and was strengthened by the AK Party’s dominance in the Turkish political system. But the idea of ‘geopolitical depth’ finds its roots in a more complex process of re-imagination of the state as a central power in the age of globalization. This book aims to illustrate the types of ap- proaches Turkey has followed to expand its action in the last decades. The five chapters have been organized following a non-standard geopolitical analysis, and considering some relevant case-studies.

The first chapter, written by Bahri Yılmaz, constitutes a general introduction to a still challenging and debated argument, i.e. the comprehension of Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East, or Turkey as a model to be followed by the others countries, investigating Turkish-EU relations. The second chapter, edited by Emidio Diodato, addresses the decisive question about the ‘zero-problems with neighbors’ doctrine, i.e. whether it was a success or
a failure.

The following chapters, written by Alessia Chiriatti, Salih Doğan and Federico Donelli, contain analysis of specific case-studies, concerning with the bilateral or trilateral relations between Turkey, Georgia, Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia. These case-studies have been debated throughout a regional perspective, focusing also on the role of Turkish non-state actors. Moreover, the states chosen to illustrate the Turkish action in the extended neighborhood have some characteristics in common, even if they are totally different among them. These countries have been faced with dramatic crises and wars that have destabilized their internal and regional equilibrium, thus requiring an external support that Turkey has tried to give, with obvious consequences on its geopolitical engagement.

This paper explores the role of Official Development Assistance
(ODA) in Turkey’s foreign policy by looking how it can function
as a foreign policy instrument. With the example of the Western
Balkans, a strategic region in the contemporary Turkish foreign
policy realm, we will show that Turkey’s development cooperation
is more than just sharing its own experience, knowledge and comparative advantages of being a recipient, but rather a foreign policy
instrument to gain influence. The manifestation of Turkey’s ODA
can be observed through the activities of the Turkish Cooperation
and Coordination Agency (Türk İşbirliği ve Koordinasyon İdaresi
Başkanlığı – TIKA), which was established in 1992 with the aim
of pursuing the idea of assisting transition economies in Central
Asia, Caucasus, and the Balkans. Focusing on the period when
Turkey concentrated on the Western Balkans, and having in mind
the perception of the latter as one of the biggest aid providers
among the emerging economies, we will argue that TIKA, which
has a monopoly over Turkey’s ODA, is used as an important foreign policy instrument.
Key words: Turkey’s Foreign Policy, TIKA, Western Balkans,
Development Cooperation, ODA