Foreign Policy Issues of the Republic of Turkey and the United States in the Period after the End of the Cold War until the 2020

Abstract

At the beginning of the 21st century, in 2002, a new political era began with the arrival of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Islam-oriented Justice and Development Party (AKP) at the head of the Republic of Turkey, which was gradually followed by changes in both foreign and domestic policy of the country. The main ideologist of modern Turkey’s foreign policy is one of the founders of the Justice and Development Party and Erdogan’s ally, former Foreign Minister and Prime Minister Professor Ahmet Davutoglu, who outlined the strategic priorities of Turkey’s foreign policy in his pioneering work Strategic Depth. In his doctrine, Ahmet Davutoglu argues that Turkey has “strategic depth” that allows it to pursue an independent foreign policy and claims to be the leading state in the region. As we know, the Republic of Turkey is located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. According to the doctrine, precisely because of its geographical position and historical ties, it has a desire to influence all these regions (the Middle East, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf, and the Black Sea), what is considered the core of neo-Ottoman ideology. Neo-Ottomanism implies a shift of the Turkish political vector from West to East. Since the beginning of the 21st century, neo-Ottomanism as an ideology has become a force responsible for the shape of political life of Turkey. According to the ideology of neo-Ottomanism, the Republic of Turkey must get rid of the subordination of the United States, which will allow it to put itself on a par with such states as Britain, France, Russia, and China. Neo-Ottomanism is the main ideological direction of the new foreign policy of the Republic of Turkey. One of the arguments used by Erdogan and his party in moving from a parliamentary to a presidential model is the fact that the country needs a government that is almost as strong and centralized as the Ottoman Empire. At the same time, the president himself and his entourage constantly emphasize that the Turks are the “heirs of the Ottomans” and that the country must return to its former glory and strengthen its political, economic and cultural influence in the former territories of the Ottoman Empire. Thus, neo-Ottomanism is part of the official ideology of the Justice and Development Party and the basis of the country’s new identity, shaped by the political elite over the years. Although there is no direct indication of Turkish regional hegemony in the “strategic depth”, most analysts, especially in the West, believe that the expansion of spheres of influence mentioned in the doctrine is, in fact, nothing more than the restoration of Turkey’s monopoly hegemony in the region, but this times by means adapted to the modern era, in particular through the use of political, economic and cultural expansion and other “soft power” tools.