TURKEY’S FOREIGN POLICY NOT EXCLUSIVELY FOCUSED ON EUROPE ANYMORE

Deutsche Welle
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April 26 2010
Germany

The EU isn’t any longer the sole focus of Turkish foreign policy
Like China, Brazil or the EU, Turkey in recent years has upgraded
its engagement with Africa. Ankara’s new interest in Africa is not
just economically driven, but exemplifies a recalibration of Turkish
foreign policy.

With a large delegation of some 150 business leaders and politicians
in tow, Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul embarked on a maiden trip
last month. Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo were
the destination for Gul and his entourage: a debut for a Turkish
president with the goal of strengthening bilateral ties with the two
African nations.

Africa until recently didn’t feature much on Ankara’s political
agenda. That area had been firmly occupied by the European Union
and Turkey’s quest for membership in it. But since 2008 at least,
a reorientation of Turkish foreign policy has taken shape and has
become steadily more visible publicly as well.

Two years ago, Ankara convened its first cooperation summit with
Africa which led to Turkey’s designation as a strategic partner by
the African Union and plans to hold summits every five years. The
next one is planned for 2013 in Africa.

While Turkey’s branching out to Africa is significant in and of itself,
it must be seen in a larger context that extends far beyond Africa.

Neo-Ottoman or not

"I think we can consider this as part and parcel of this changing
paradigm in Turkish foreign policy which is a multiactiveness
that goes beyond Europe and that extends wider into its broader
neighborhood," says Senem Aydın Duezgit, a Turkish foreign policy
expert at Istanbul’s Bilgi University.

"They also call it the neo-Ottoman foreign policy which is supposed
to be much more proactive generally as a global player," he told
Deutsche Welle.

This reorientation of Turkey’s foreign policy that had started before
he took office, became more pronounced since Ahmed Davutoglu, an
influential academic who has published numerous papers about Turkey’s
role in the world, became foreign minister last year.

Thomas Diez, a professor of international relations at the University
of Tuebingen, gives Turkey’s new foreign policy approach a good grade
overall, but cautions against designating it as a neo-Ottoman strategy
as has been done by politicians and analysts inside Turkey and abroad:

"I think one has to be careful with this. I think we should be aware
that once we make those linkages we plant things in certain ways and
therefore link them with associations which I find very problematic,"
he told Deutsche Welle.

What’s more, argues Diez, the reasons for Turkey’s foreign policy
shift are much more mundane than the label neo-Ottoman belies. One
is simply the economic expansion of a country which has the potential
to grow into becoming an important player in international business.

The second factor is an internal realignment within the country away
from idea of a sole orientation toward the West by the founder of the
Turkish republic, Kemal Ataturk. "And of course, the Africa policy
goes far beyond what used to be the Ottoman empire I should hasten
to add," says Diez.

World beyond Europe

While Turkey’s troubled bid for EU membership has influenced Ankara’s
broadened global perpective, it didn’t trigger it, say the experts.

"I don’t think they have formulated this policy because relations with
the EU have stalled in the last couple of years and because accession
negotiations are not going as they were planned," notes Duezgit.

Unlike in the 1980s and 1990s Turkey doesn’t perceive relations with
the EU as a mutually exclusive partnership. "The official Turkish
foreign policy line here is that we can have good relations both with
our neigbors and also in the wider global network of countries and
also with the European Union," says Duezgit.

Ankara’s branching out may actually boost its chances of ultimately
joining the European Union.

"I think that Turkish foreign policy in general has taken a road
that is rather beneficial to an EU membership," argues Diez and cites
Davatoglu’s strategy of opening Turkey up to its neighbors, working
actively to solve the Cyrus conflict and striving for reconciliation
with Armenia.

"I think all these issues have made Turkey in many ways more in tune
with what the EU would regard as a considered foreign policy."

Bildunterschrift: GroÃ~_ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:
Turkey has made steps toward normalizing ties with ArmeniaThis in
turn allows Turkey to make a different and much more pragmatic claim
why it should be a member of the EU. The earlier argument held that
Ankara belongs to Europe due to its historical, cultural and political
connections.

"Now the argument goes that we are going to help the EU play the role
of a stronger global player especially regarding the EU neighborhood
policy," says Duezgit. "The argument goes that Turkey actually might
be an asset for EU foreign policy."

But regardless of its chances for EU membership, it seems Turkey has
firmly settled on its realigned foreign policy approach. In the past
two years it has opened five new embassies in Africa. Ten more are
slated for the coming years.