It’s keen to enter the European Union; it’s keen to remain a bridge between Europe and the Middle East. Kaitlin MacKenzie talks to Sedat Laciner from the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization about Turkey’s foreign policy strategies.

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How does Turkey’s location impact on its foreign policy?

First of all, Anatolia is a special place between the continents of Asia, Europe, and Africa. It was always an important place for the Romans, for the Greeks, Arabs, Iranians, and Russians. If a country is located in such a special place, it needs a special foreign policy to protect its interests and to maintain its relations with the neighbouring regions. The Anatolian political and economic order needs to be integrated with that of the Balkans and the Caucasus, and with that of today’s Middle Eastern systems, for otherwise it cannot maintain its sovereignty, development, independence, or peace. Turks, during the Ottoman era, first integrated the Anatolian territories and then moved to the territories that connect Anatolia to Europe, Asia, and northern Africa. That is why the first sultans of the Ottoman Empire gave great importance to integrating the Balkans and Asia Minor before integrating the Black Sea region and the Caucasian and Middle Eastern territories nearby. Now, times have changed. Today, you cannot conquer countries by invading them; this is not the way to protect your interests … Today’s Turkey still needs to integrate the surrounding regions, but the methods will be different, and in today’s world Turkey cannot impose its ideas and policies on the surrounding countries. Turkey, unlike the Ottoman Empire, should not dictate policies and should not aim to be a hegemonic state in the region."

How has Turkish foreign policy changed over time?

With the AK Party (Justice and Development Party) government, Turkey declared a new foreign policy understanding. The architect of this new foreign policy understanding is Ahmet Davutoglu, an International Relations professor. He calls his understanding “strategic depth”, or a “zero problem with neighbours” foreign policy. Actually this is not a deviation from the Turkish foreign policy orthodoxy. There is a great continuation in Turkish foreign policy understanding and implementation. The only difference is that as Turkey and the world have changed over the years, Turkey’s relations with the outside world have evolved accordingly. In the 1950s, for example, Turkey was quite a poor country, and although the Turkish football team had qualified to participate in the World Cup tournament in 1950, it was in Latin America, and Turkey did not have the financial resources to send its football team to the tournament. Imagine how poor Turkey was. (Now we have money, but our football team cannot qualify for the tournament!) The financial power of a country certainly shapes its diplomacy and external relations.

Turkey, after the AK Party’s rise to power, first aimed to solve its problems with neighbouring countries. First, Turkey started a dialogue process and created new dialogue channels. Syria-Turkey relations would be a perfect example of this new foreign policy understanding. Since 2003, Turkish high ranked politicians have visited Damascus more than 100 times. This is unusual for the Middle East region, whose leaders normally do not visit each other so frequently. Apart from Syria, Turkey has made efforts to improve its relations with Iraq and Iran too … It can be said that the dialogue and strengthening of the communication ways are at the heart of the new Turkish understanding.

What have been the results of Turkey’s foreign policy strategy?

In the past, the regional states mostly discussed, or argued about, ‘big’ political problems. But now, Turkey is not talking about politics, but also economics, as well as technical questions such as transportation infrastructure, visas regimes, and tourism. As a matter of fact this is the spirit of the EU. After World War II, the EU countries began to cooperate on economic and technical matters, and the spillover effect eventually led to more and more political cooperation. In 2009 Turkey and Syria for example reached a visa-free partnership after many co-operation efforts.
Turkey applied to the EU (EEC at that time) in 1959 and we have many written agreements between the EU and Turkey. Turkey is now in full membership negotiations. But although Turkey and the EU have been partners for more than a half-century, they have not been able to reach a visa-free agreement. So Turkey-Syria relations have progressed faster than Turkey-EU relations, at least with respect to the visa process.

Going back to what you mentioned before, how has Turkey’s improved economic situation affected its foreign relations?

Turkish economy, in terms of trade, direct Turkish investments, foreign investments in Turkey, tourism, industrial production etc., has boomed in the last five-six years. The growing economy directly affects Turkey’s external relations and increase capabilities of Turkish diplomacy. The economy also strengthens Turkey’s soft power over its region. Millions of people thanks to tourism come to Turkey and visit seaside resorts and enjoy the Turkish way of life. Turkish cultural products are also part of its soft power and affect the Middle Eastern societies. For example, in the Arab world the most popular television drama series are recently Turkish (like ‘Gümüș’, ‘Nur’ in Arabic; ‘Years of Loss’; ‘Bouquet of Flowers’ etc.), and Turkish satellite TV shows have an audience of millions in the region.

Tourism and culture relations are not just business; they affect culture, political understanding and many other things. The television dramas for example deal with social issues within the framework of overlapping stories and dramatic plots for suspense. These series look at issues such as love, family values, society, unemployment, poverty and greed from a Turkish angle.

Turkey with its success stories and export products shapes these countries, these societies’ structures, but not by imposing or dictating change. Turkey knows each country has its own story. If you try to change their leaders, their regimes, you cannot get results you expect. We need time and we need different methods. Of course the improvement of democracy, human rights standards, and transparency all are Turkish foreign policy’s preferences, but Turkey or any other country should not dictate something to these countries. Turkey is trying to be a model and therefore first has to improve itself before dictating democracy or human rights standards to other countries. The second thing that the Turkish experience proves is that true friendship, reliable partnership between Turkey and the Western countries is possible. There is not many success stories between the West and the Muslim world … If Turkey can be successful in its relations with the EU, for example if Turkey can be a full member of the EU, with its Turkish identity and Muslim religion, it will be a success story and a model, an inspiration for the rest of the Muslim countries.

This is an edited version of an article originally published in the Turkish Weekly Journal (www.turkishweekly.net). Sedat Laciner is director of USAK (International Strategic Research Organization), an Ankara-based Turkish think tank.