Geo-Positioning of Turkey in Eurasia in the Twenty-First Century

Authors : Ayla Gol

Pages : 102-121

View : 49 | Download : 99

Publication Date : 2024-06-14

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Looking through the lens of critical geopolitics, the article challenges Turkey’s so-called ‘bridge’ position and the binary opposition of Europe and Asia by arguing that the vision of Turkish foreign policy has been imagined spatially and constrained geo-strategically. In this article, for the first time, I coined the term ‘geo-positioning’ in describing Turkey’s ‘in-between’ location based on geographical, geostrategic, geopolitical, and geo-cultural variables taken together. Therefore, the main assumption of this article is that geo-positioning can alternate because it depends on state leaders’ subjective vision and perception of achieving a new strategy for dealing with geopolitical challenges. Therefore, Turkey’s evolving policies towards Eurasia are a consequence of the Ankara governments’ search for an alternative vision and geo-positioning since in post-Cold War international relations. The article analyses whether the goals of Turkish foreign policy were shaped by material or ideational interests and how they influenced Turkey’s geo-positioning in Eurasia. For the last two decades, traditional Turkish foreign policy has been altered by evolving multi-dimensionally and engaging actively in the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. After summarizing the uncertainties of post-Cold War politics, the second part examines the implication of multidimensional foreign policy under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) leadership since 2002. The article concludes that the new geo-positioning of Turkey in the twenty-first century has evolved paradoxically around collaboration and competition with Russia, China, and Iran.
Keywords : 21 Yüzyıl, İran, Çin, Rusya, Türk Dış Politikası, AKP, Türkiye