Turkey:
A regional power and a potential candidate to join the EU.
Badis Shubailat
English 110
Professor Egan
22 Novevember
Turkey:
A regional power and a potential candidate to join the EU.
Turkey’s geographical position between Asia, Europe and four geopolitical regions (the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Middle-East and northern Eurasia) is increasingly becoming more strategic as its internal forces are gradually being reinforced. Undoubtedly, Turkey has thrived over the past 60 years to become a true regional power and, more recently, a potential candidate to join the European Union. Indeed, it is its internal and foreign policies, economic and military policies since 1945, that allowed Turkey to continuously adapt and reposition itself in order to meet the EU admission standards.
From the perspective of politics, the Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi abbreviated AK party, in english the Justice and Development Party, was elected on a moderate platform enforcing economic and constitutional reforms and protecting Ataturk’s secularist tradition from Islamic fundamentalism. Indeed Prime Minister Erdogan’s AK government has done more than any other previous one since Ataturk, the founding father of the modern Turkish Republic, to reform the country and find a solution to the Kurdish question; in fact, the AK started a new policy approach vis-à-vis the Kurdish population with the intention of solving a longtime domestic conflict using different mediums than military violence: political, cultural, and economic reforms (Barkey). Furthermore, Erdogan's government extensively in favor of “market-friendly policies” increased the AK party's recognition (Barkey). The party in power, which suggested the changes in the constitution approved in September 2010, portrayed the repair as an effort to reinforce Turkey’s vibrant and competitive democracy while clearing its way towards the most exclusive 27-nation club membership.
Historically, Turkish foreign policy was always oriented westwards since Ataturk’s dissolution of the Muslim caliphate, adoption of the Latin alphabet and institution of a democracy. However, after the end of the cold war, Turkey could no longer be identified as one category. Indeed, “in terms of its spheres of influence, Turkey is a Middle-Eastern, Balkan, Caucasian, Central Asian, Caspian, Mediterranean, Gulf, and Black sea country all at the same time” (Davutoglu 1). Foreign Minister Davutoglu’s visionary policy of “zero problems with neighbors” enables Turkey to play an important role in its region, underlining how valuable it would be as an EU member (Salem). Turkey's foreign policy technician is often perceived as a neo-ottoman with his policy being very similar to Ataturk's “peace at home, peace in the world” (Landon). In fact, Mr. Davutoglu is betting on stability and security around the borders “not only for itself but also for the region”(Davutoglu 1). The latter is doing so in order to strengthen Turkey's image of a tangible buffer that could play a role of “mediation”, maintain security between Europe and the Middle-East and “access to as many markets as it can secure” (Salem). As Salem argues, its external relations are “based largely on Turkey’s economic interests”. Indeed, Turkey re-tought its diplomatic relations with Syria, a problematic country for the West and the extremely questionnable Islamic republic of Iran, its only alternative energy after Russia and the Middle-East (Salem). Furthermore, over the past decade, Turkey has increasingly grown as a crucial actor in its complex and strategic geopolitical region to resolve the Iraqi/Kurdish conflict, discuss the Arab/Israeli peace process and think of a solution to the Iranian uranium enrichment (Salem). Thus, all these components of its foreign policy assess how valuable it would be for the EU's interests, as a permanent member.
