Turkey 100 years after the Treaty of Lausanne (page 3)
Turkey's Foreign Policy
Defying Western expectations, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won in last month's runoff election. Turkey's longest-serving leader, Erdogan won 52.2% support in the runoff, defying polls that predicted economic strains would lead to his defeat.
In his victory speech on May 28, Erdogan denounced his NATO allies who didn't hide their preference for his opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the election. "Didn't German, French and British magazines publish covers to beat Erdogan? They also lost. You have seen the alliances that have been formed against us for months. You have seen who is with whom. They failed and they will not succeed from now on," he said.
His new mandate is expected to allow Erdogan to pursue increasingly independent policies that have strengthened Turkey's position as a regional military power.
Erdogan's long tenure has increased Turkiye's political bid to become a global power as the US has continued to lose its international influence and soft power across many areas from the Middle East to Central Asia, according to TRT.
Erdogan has skillfully pursued a middle ground in many conflicts from Libya to Ukraine, protecting Turkish interests across the chaotic Middle East and increasing Ankara's political stakes in Turkic-dominated Central Asia, TRT added.
In the Ukraine conflict, Turkiye has also acted as a mediator, brokering a landmark grain deal between Kiev and Moscow mainly thanks to Erdogan's good friendship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Erdogan has maintained close ties with Russia and refused to participate in Western sanctions, while also supplying weapons to Ukraine.
The next five years will likely see a continuation of Erdogan walking a fine line and his transactional approach to foreign policy.
The Strategic Depth Doctrine
Tellingly, Turkish foreign policy under Erdogan has been associated with the name of Ahmet Davutoglu, once his chief foreign policy advisor. It is virtually impossible to discuss Turkish foreign policy since 2002 without a reference to Ahmet Davutoglu, one of the few academics who joined the ranks of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi-AKP).
In his book "Strategic Depth," published in 2001, Davutoglu elaborates on his strategic vision about Turkey. He argues that Turkey possesses "strategic depth" due to its history and geographic position and lists Turkey among a small group of countries which he calls "central powers". Turkey should not be content with a regional role in the Balkans or the Middle East, because it is not a regional but a central power. Hence, it should aspire to play a leading role in several regions, which could award it global strategic significance.
In Davutoglu's view, Turkey is a Middle Eastern, Balkan, Caucasian, Central Asian, Caspian, Mediterranean, Gulf and Black Sea country, can simultaneously exercise influence in all these regions and thus claim a global strategic role.
Davutoglu identities several areas of the 'cross-border spheres of influence'. He uses a concept of Turkey's contiguous 'land basins' that include the Balkans, Caucasus and the Middle East to describe Turkey's potential spheres of influence. He enumerates the Black, Eastern Mediterranean, Caspian seas and the Persian Gulf or the Gulf of Basra as a natural extension of Turkey's maritime basin. He also stresses a shift in geopolitical status of Turkey from a barrier, predicated on its NATO membership during the cold war, to a bridge to a new regional system, which extends beyond Erzurum Plain and includes states of Caucasus and Eurasia. He also notes that the concept of the 'continental basin' allows Turkey to gain 'strategic depth in Asia, and projection into Europe and Africa'. [The ''Strategic Depth'' that Turkey Needs', An Interview with Ahmet Davutoglu, The Turkish Daily News, September 15, 2001.]
He identities eight former empires Britain, Russia, Austro- Hungary, France, Germany, China, Japan and Turkey as countries with historical depth. In his comparative analysis, he comes to the conclusion that these countries experience similar problems of ethno-nationalism, separatism and general anti- imperialist dissension in their respective regions. As a result, Turkey, due to its historical legacy of the Ottoman Empire, possesses a great geographical depth. With reference to Turkey, he notes:
Geographical depth is a part of historical depth. For instance, Turkey is not just any old Mediterranean country. One important characteristic that distinguishes Turkey from say Romania or Greece is that Turkey is at the same time a Middle Eastern and a Caucasian country. Unlike Germany, Turkey is as much a European country as it is an Asian country. Indeed, Turkey is as much a Black Sea country as it is a Mediterranean one. This geographical depth places Turkey right at the center of many geopolitical influences.
To borrow Richard Falk, Davutoglu proposed a deliberate revival of the Ottoman past, 'both as a matter of cultural enrichment, but also as a source of an enriched Turkish identity as a political actor'. [R. Falk, 'Reconsidering Turkey', Zaman, October 6, 2004.]
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
