What Determines Ankara’s Foreign Policy?
What Determines Ankara’s Foreign Policy?

Summary/Abstract: Turkey has attained political, strategic and economic critical mass over the past decade, elevating its status on the international arena, and placing itself at the centre of issues important to the West. But this does not mean that Turkey has attained the capacity to be the principal player in the region; at least not in the way the Erdoğan government envisaged initially. Meanwhile the “Arab Spring” not only caught Ankara off-guard, but also made a sham of the government’s much touted “zero problems with neighbours” policy, leaving Ankara with strained ties with almost all of its immediate neighbours. The fact that Turkish foreign policy has become an extension of domestic politics, which in Turkey can be abrasive, has also blurred well defined lines in Ankara’s traditional foreign policy approach. The picture that has emerged clearly indicates that it are the events which continue to be the principle determinant in Turkey’s foreign policy orientation, and not visionary plans drawn up in Ankara which have little to do with the situation on the ground.

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