Turkish Policies toward Southeast Europe: Between Cooperation and Confrontation
Turkish Policies toward Southeast Europe: Between Cooperation and Confrontation

Summary/Abstract: Ankara’s Southeast Europe policy has been of increasing interest to scholars and policy-makers in the past two decades. Decisive in such attention is Turkey’s increasing foreign policy activism under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), the transformation of the Turkish political system into an autocracy, and the mounting tension between Ankara and its Western allies. Building on existing literature and primary evidence, particularly in the aftermath of Russia’s war against Ukraine, this essay argues that Turkish policy toward Southeast Europe is best defined as a combination of cooperation and conflict. Turkish ruling elites’ post-Cold War aspirations to make Turkey a regional power, the threat perceptions in the Black Sea and the Aegean, and, finally, the interests of the AKP leadership to remain in power, shape Ankara’s approach to the region.

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