Between europeanization and euro-asianism: Foreign policy activism in Turkey during the AKP era

Turkish Studies

Volumn 10, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 7-24

  Öniş, Ziya ^a   Yilmaz, Şuhnaz ^a  

^a KOÇ UNIVERSITY   (Turkey)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 67749103708     PISSN: 14683849     EISSN: 17439663     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/14683840802648562     Document Type: Article

References (51)

1. For broad overviews of Turkish foreign policy that pay significant attention to both the Cold War and the post-Cold War contexts, see Yasemin Çelik, Contemporary Turkish Foreign Policy (Westport CT: Praeger, 1999);
2. William Hale, Turkish Foreign Policy, 1774-2000 (London: Frank Cass, 2000);
3. Philip Robins, Suits and Uniforms: Turkish Foreign Policy Since the Cold War (London and Hurst/Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2003);
4. F. Stephen Larrabee and Ian O. Lesser, Turkish Foreign Policy in an Age of Uncertainty (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2003);
5. and Lenore G. Martin and Dimitris Keridis (eds.), The Future of Turkish Foreign Policy (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003). On foreign policy activism in Turkey in the immediate post-Cold War context see Kemal Kirişçi, "New Patterns of Foreign Policy Behaviour," in Çiģdem Balim et al. (eds.), Turkey: Political, Social and Economic Challenges in the 1990s (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995), pp. 1-21;
6. Alan Makovsky, "The New Activism in Turkish Foreign Policy," SAIS Review, Vol.19, No.1 (Winter/Spring 1999), pp.92-113;
7. and Meltem Müftüler and Müberra Yüksel, "Turkey: A Middle Power in the New Order," in Andrew Cooper (ed.), Niche Diplomacy: Middle Powers after the Cold War (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997), pp.184-96.
8. On the transformation of Islamist politics in Turkey and multidimensional analyses of the AKP phenomenon, see the collection of essays by Hakan Yavuz (ed.), The Emergence of a New Turkey: Islam, Democracy and the AK Parti (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2006);
9. and Ümit Cizre (ed.), Secular and Islamic Politics in Turkey: The Making of the Justice and Development Party (London: Routledge, 2008).
10. Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1997), pp.30-56.
11. For the impact of the Europeanization process in the economic realm, see Kemal Dervis, Daniel Gross, Michael Emerson, and Sinan Ulgen, The European Transformation of Modern Turkey (Brussels: Center for European Policy Studies, 2004);
12. and Ziya Öniş and Caner Bakir, "Turkey's Political Economy in the Age of Financial Globalization: The significance of the EU Anchor," South European Society and Politics, Vol.12, No.2 (July 2007), pp.147-64.
13. For a detailed elaboration of the democratization reforms, see Ergun Özbudun, "Democratization Reforms in Turkey: 1993-2004," Turkish Studies, Vol.8, No.2 (2007), pp.179-96.
14. On democratization of foreign policy and the emphasis on the use of "soft power," which is a reflection of the overall democratization of Turkish politics under the impact of EU conditionality, see Ziya Öniş and sc[Şuhnaz Yilmaz, "Turkey-EU-US Triangle in Perspective: Transformation or Continuity?," The Middle East Journal, Vol.59, No.2 (Spring 2005), pp.265-84,
15. and Tarik Oǧuzlu, "Soft Power in Turkish Foreign Policy," Australian Journal of International Affairs, Vol.61, No.1 (March 2007), pp.81-97.
16. On the impact of the EU in terms of transforming Turkey's security discourses, see Pinar Bilgin, "Turkey's Changing Security Discourses: The Challenge of Globalization," European Journal of Political Research, Vol.44 (2005), pp.175-201.
17. For a detailed discussion of the hydropolitics in this region and its implications for Turkish-Syrian relations, see scŞuhnaz Yilmaz, "Bridge over Troubled Waters: Hydropolitics of the Tigris and Euphrates," MA thesis, Princeton University, 1995.
18. Professor Ahmet Davutoǧlu emerged as a key influence on the formulation of foreign policy during the AKP era as the chief advisor to the foreign minister (and currently the president), Abdullah Gül. See Ahmet Davutoǧlu, Stratejik Derinlik: Türkiye'nin Uluslararasi Konumu [Strategic Depth: Turkey's International Standing] (Istanbul: Küre Yayinlari, 2001) and "Türkiye Merkez Ülke Olmali" [Turkey Should be a Pivotal/Central Country], Radikal, February 26, 2004.
19. See also in this context Alexander Murinson, "The Strategic Depth Doctrine of Turkish Foreign Policy," Middle Eastern Studies, Vol.42, No.6 (November 2006), pp.945-64.
20. See Ahmet Davutoǧlu, "Turkey's Foreign Policy Vision: An Assessment of 2007," Insight Turkey, Vol.10, No.1 (2008), p.80. For a detailed operation of his vision see Davutoǧlu, Stratejik Derinlik.
21. Davutoǧlu, Stratejik Derinlik, pp.551-63.
22. See Davutoǧlu, "Turkey's Foreign Policy Vision," pp.77-96.
23. On Turkey's new activism in the Middle East during the AKP era, which marks a significant point of departure from the previous wave of foreign policy activism during the 1990s, see Bülent Aras and Rabia Karakyapolat, "Turkey and the Middle East: the Frontiers of the New Geographic Imagination," Australian Journal of International Affairs, Vol.61, No.4 (December 2007), pp.471-88;
24. Meliha Benli Altunişik, "The Turkish Model and Democratization in the Middle East," Arab Studies Quarterly, Vol.27, No.1/2 (Winter 2005), pp.45-63;
25. and Dietrich Jung, "Turkey and the Arab World: Historical Narratives and New Political Realities," Mediterranean Politics, Vol.10, No.1 (March 2005), pp.1-17. For comprehensive overviews of different dimensions of Turkish foreign policy during the AKP era see Zeynep Daǧi (ed.), AKP'li Yillar: Doǧudan Batiya Diş Politika [The AKP Years: Foreign Policy from East to West] (Ankara: Orion Yayinevi, 2006);
26. and Kemal Kirişçi, "Turkey's Foreign Policy in Turbulent Times," Chaillot Paper, No.92 (2006).
27. In addition to the goal of successfully completing the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) crude oil pipeline, the AKP government promoted the Shah-Deniz natural gas pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum) as well as the other Trans-Caspian Natural Gas Pipeline projects (for example, the Turkey- Greece-Italy Inter-connector Project), railroads, and complementary infrastructure.
28. The partner companies participating in the construction of the BTC pipeline included SOCAR, BP, Unocal, STATOIL, TPAO, ENI, Itochu, Delta Hess, TFE, and INPEKS.
29. "Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline Named after Heydar Aliyev," http://wwwazerbaijan.az/ -Economy/-OilStrategy/-oilStrategy-e.html (accessed June 15, 2008).
30. "Kazak Petrolü Ceyhan'a Akacak" [Kazakh Oil Will Flow to Ceyhan], Milliyet, June 9, 2006;
31. "Baku-Tiflis-Ceyhan Tam Kapasite" [Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Full Capacity], Radikal, June 11, 2006;
32. "Kazakistan'dan Iyi Haber Geldi" [Good News from Kazakhstan], Radikal, June 16, 2006.
33. Suhnaz Yilmaz, "Active Diplomatic Engagements and Energy Politics: The Caspian, Azerbaijan, and the Gulf Region," in Marat Terterov (ed.), Russian and CIS Relations with the Gulf Region: Current Trends in Political and Economic Dynamics (Dubai: Gulf Research Center Publications, 2008).
34. "Annan Announces New Initiative to Bridge Gap between Islamic, Western Worlds," UN News Center, July 14, 2005, http://www.un.org/apps/ news/story (accessed June 15, 2008).
35. For more information on Turkey's role in the Alliance of Civilizations project, see Ali Balci and Nebi Miş , "Turkey's Role in the 'Alliance of Civilizations': A New Perspective in Turkish Foreign Policy?" Turkish Studies, Vol.9, No.3 (September 2008), pp.387-406.
36. See Davutoǧlu, "Turkey's Foreign Policy Vision," pp.82-3.
37. Ibid., p.89.
38. On the alleged shifts of the main axis of foreign policy away from Europe or the West towards the Middle East in the later years of the AKP government, see Tarik Oǧuzlu, "Middle Easternization of Turkey's Foreign Policy: Does Turkey Dissociate from the West?," Turkish Studies, Vol.9, No.1 (March 2008).
39. For a detailed discussion of the rising Euro-skepticism in Turkey, also see Hakan Yilmaz, "Eurosk-epticism in Turkey: Parties, Elites and Public Opinion, 1995-2006," South European Society and Politics, Vol.13, No.4 (December 2008).
40. On the question of fairness in Turkey-EU relations, see E. Fuat Keyman and Senem Aydin, "The Principle of Fairness in Turkey-EU Relations," Turkish Policy Quarterly, Vol.3 (Fall 2004), pp.83-5.
41. For a useful discussion of the rising Euro-skepticism and anti-Western sentiments in Turkey from around 2005 onwards, see Philip Gordon and Ömer Taş pinar, "Turkey on the Brink," The Washington Quarterly, Vol.29, No.3 (Summer 2006), pp.57-70.
42. On the challenges and domestic political constraints on the conduct of foreign policy in Turkey, see Philip Robins, "Turkish Foreign Policy since 2002: Between a 'Post-Islamist' Government and a Kemalist State," International Affairs, Vol.83, No.1 (2007), pp.289-304.
43. In the case of Leyla sc[edŞahin v. Turkey (June 2004), the European Court of Human Rights decided in favor of Turkey. The banning of headscarves at the University of Istanbul did not violate Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
44. On the potential and limits of "conservatism globalism," see Ziya Öniş, "Conservative Globalists versus Defensive Nationalists: Political Parties and Paradoxes of Europeanization in Turkey," Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, Vol.9, No.3 (December 2007), pp.247-61.
45. Soli Özel, "Erdoǧan Must Seize this Chance to Reform Turkey," Financial Times, July 31, 2008.
46. Joseph S. Nye, "Soft Power and American Foreign Policy," Political Science Quarterly, Vol.119, No.2 (2004), p.256.
47. For a detailed discussion of the hydropolitics of the Tigris and Euphrates, see Yilmaz.
48. Additional information on the meeting of Extended Neighboring Countries of Iraq is at http:// www.mfa.gov.tr/sayin-bakanimizin-basin-toplantisinda- yaptiklari-konusma--1-kasim-2007.tr.mfa (accessed June 15, 2008).
49. Oleg Shchedrov, "Georgia Crisis Defines a New Russian Defense Policy," Washington Post, September 1, 2008.
50. "Gül's Armenia Visit is More than Symbolic," Turkish Daily News, September 6, 2008; Elitsa Vucheva, "EU Hails Turkey's 'Historic' Armenia Visit," EU Observer, September 5, 2008.
51. Soner Çaǧatay, "Hamas Visits Ankara: The AKP Shifts Turkey's Role in the Middle East," February 16, 2006, http://www. thewashigtoninstitute.org/template (accessed June 15, 2008).