DİPLOMASİ - Deneme Sınavı - 10

Turkey also wants to play an active role in NATO’s efforts to reach out to the Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean and Persian Gulf regions.

Turkey supported NATO’s expansion toward Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary; Turkey participated in and led the multinational NATO forces in Afghanistan; Turkey took part in NATO’s limited involvement in Libya in 2011; Turkey let NATO install radar facilities of the missile defense system in its territories; and Turkey encouraged the Alliance in its efforts to help radiate NATO’s values to the countries, which are not to be NATO members, within the framework of NATO’s Partnership for Peace Program.

National security and foreign policy interests have long been defined from the perspective of the state. There is a strong state tradition in Turkey.

Issues of diplomacy, foreign policy and national security were so much existential and vital that they should not be left to the discretion of the politicians who only think how they can win upcoming elections and remain in power. State elites would, on the other hand, put national interests at the center of their behaviors and approach vitally important issues from the perspective of state.

Turkey is defined as the crown jewel in geopolitical power struggles among external actors. Turkey is surrounded by enemies that would never hesitate to make use of any opportunity to dictate their terms on Turkey as well as to dismember this county. A strong dose of siege mentality exists among Turkish people. Turkish decision makers tend to perceive Turkey’s neighbors to all directions as the pawns in the hands of great powers, which would likely use them as leverage in their relations with Turkey. The facts that many neighbors of Turkey gained their independence from the Ottoman Empire and they were very much assisted by external great powers in their efforts seem to have led Turkish decision makers feel suspicious of Turkey’s neighbors.

Diplomatic and foreign policy issues need to be dealt with secretly and behind closed doors. Open discussion of such issues before the public is generally seen as risky. Diplomatic issues require expertise. For a long time, only the state elites nested in bureaucracy were assumed to have possessed this expertise. The participation of civil society and nonstate actors in the formulation of Turkey’s foreign policy interests has been quite limited compared to liberal democratic countries in the West. Diplomacy has always been the privilege of state elites in Turkey. It is during the process of Europeanization and democratization that civil society has finally begun to acquire an important role in Turkish diplomacy. It is now the case that both elected politicians are more knowledgeable than before about foreign policy and diplomatic issues.

Turkey would not be able to achieve its national interests if the gains of the wars won
on battlefields were not legitimized through diplomatic negotiations. Securing military victories on battlefields would not accrue benefits to Turkey, should they not be entrenched through diplomacy.

Turkish rulers have also inherited an imperial mentality from the Ottoman era in that Turkey has long been seen as the continuation of the Empire. The imperial mentality also manifests itself in the way how Turkish rulers interact with their counterparts in other countries.

Pan-Turkism, pan-Ottomanism and panIslamisim - have continued to influence Turkey’s diplomatic practices during the Republican era. Despite the fact that the founding rulers of the Turkish Republic discarded all adventurist strategies from the lexicon of state and heavily invested in Turkish nationalism, all the ‘isms’ mentioned have continued to be influential in coming decades.

To Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic, and his comrades in arms, Turkey’s number one national interest during the 1920s and 1930s was to protect the newly gained independence and sovereignty as well as successfully completing the radical transformation process at home. Turkish rulers tried to help bring into existence a stable and cooperative regional environment so that developments outside the borders would never have negative consequences on the ongoing modernization and development processes at home.

In its effort to convince the Europeans to the idea of Turkey’s membership in the European Union, Turkish rulers have continuously instrumentalized Turkey’s geographical location as a bargaining chip. Turkey’s geography has recently come to the agenda in the context of the migration crisis engulfing European countries.

The main reason why the island of Cyprus occupies a very important place in Turkish foreign policy is Cyprus’s geographical proximity to Anatolian peninsula as well as the recent discovery of rich natural gas resources in Eastern Mediterranean.

The time period between 1923 and 1939 had a multipolar international and regional environment with none of the great powers having the ability to set the course of international developments, let alone imposing its will on to others through unilateral and coercive means. During this period, Turkey’s maneuvering capability was high and Turkey pursued a multidirectional foreign policy.

In the last few decades, Turkey has been in search for more strategic autonomy. The relative decline of Western powers, the questioning of the Western model across the globe, the concomitant rise of non-Western powers in global politics and the onset of the Arab Spring seem to have all caused a shift of axis in Turkish foreign policy away from the West to the East.

Turkey’s strong military power capability constitutes the most important source of Turkish diplomacy. 

Desecuritization of bilateral relations with neighboring countries, particularly with the ones located in the Middle East; helping bring into existence EU-like regional integration mechanisms in its region; investing in multilateral problems in its effort to find solutions to regional problems; taking ‘mediatory and facilitation initiatives’ in the solution of disputes between other countries’ and intensifying the social and cultural exchanges with other countries in social, cultural, tourism and educational levels all now shape Turkish diplomatic practices decisively.

Investing in public diplomacy initiatives, transforming the Turkish Airlines into one of the largest air-carriers all over the world, founding the English language TRT-World, redesigning the TRT as a multi-lingual broadcasting company, increasing humanitarian and development aids to poor and needy countries (Çelik and İşeri,
2016, 429-448), and establishing particular state institutions in charge of dealing with the problems of Turkish-origin people in the countries which host sizable Turkish communities can all be considered as important soft power initiatives.

Some examples of Turkey’s new attitude towards NATO as described above are as follows: Turkey provided military support to the peacekeeping operations carried out by NATO in the Balkans (especially in Bosnia and Kosovo); Turkey supported NATO’s expansion toward Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary; Turkey participated in and led the multinational NATO forces in Afghanistan; Turkey took part in NATO’s limited involvement in Libya in 2011; Turkey let NATO install radar facilities of the missile defense system in its territories; and Turkey encouraged the Alliance in its efforts to help radiate NATO’s values to the countries, which are not to be NATO members, within the framework of NATO’s Partnership for Peace Program.

The first legacy that the rulers of the Turkish
republic inherited from the Ottoman past is that
the state is the main diplomatic and security actor.
National security and foreign policy interests have
long been defined from the perspective of the
state.

Another legacy of the Ottoman years is that the
alternative ideologies and strategies that had once
come to the agenda in late 19th century with a view to ensuring the survival of the Ottoman Empire - namely pan-Turkism, pan-Ottomanism and panIslamisim - have continued to influence Turkey’s diplomatic practices during the Republican era.

Westernization is also thought of a security
strategy in that Turkey would feel itself safe and
secure if it came closer to the West/Europe and its
Western/European identity were recognized as such
by Westerners/Europeans

The revision of
the Lasuanne regulations on the status of Turkish
Straits through the Montreaux Convention in
1936, the incorporation of Hatay region into
Turkey in 1939, and the settlement of the Mousul
question and the border dispute with Iraq in 1926
are all examples to the use of international law and
diplomacy in Turkish foreign policy

Turkey’s geography has recently
come to the agenda in the context of the migration
crisis engulfing European countries. The migration
deal that Turkey signed with the European Union
in the spring of 2016 is very much the function
of Turkey’s peculiar geography in the context of
European efforts to stem the refugee flow emanating
from the Greater Middle Eastern region.

International system is among the Temporal and Conjectural Factors

Despite the fact that structural factors
have to a significant extent curtailed their ability
to set the course of Turkish foreign policy in line
with their distinctive political ideology, they have
nevertheless had the opportunity to reflect their
ideologies on Turkey’s diplomatic choices. Of all
the alternative political ideologies, center-of-right,
center-of-left, Turkish nationalism and political
Islam stand out most.

Improving Turkey’s positive image in the eyes of
other countries does also constitute an important
part of Turkish diplomatic efforts in recent
years. Investing in public diplomacy initiatives,
transforming the Turkish Airlines into one of the
largest air-carriers all over the world, founding
the English language TRT-World, redesigning the
TRT as a multi-lingual broadcasting company,
increasing humanitarian and development aids
to poor and needy countries (Çelik and İşeri,
2016, 429-448), and establishing particular state
institutions in charge of dealing with the problems
of Turkish-origin people in the countries which
host sizable Turkish communities can all be
considered as important soft power initiatives