A Brief Overview of Turkish Foreign Policy - Part 2

In the first part, I have elaborated on the Turkish Russian relations between 2002 and 2012. And on this one, I aim to look into Turkish-American relations. The Turkish-American relationship had its ups and downs during this period. After the 9/11 attacks, the foreign policy of the US changed drastically and Bush aimed to create a more peaceful environment by declaring a fight against terrorism. Afghanistan was held responsible by the attacks and military intervention was made by the US to the region.

Even though Turkey gave support to this action, there were disagreements on how to conduct them. These disagreements increased specifically when the Bush administration widened the scope of its use of military force over other states. Especially because Turkey wanted to follow more soft power-related policies. 

The project Turkey supported at that time was the ‘Greater Middle East Initiative’ which was suggested by the US. The Greater Middle East Initiative claims to have a positive impact on those states who need improvements on the topics such as education, democracy and social developments, and so on in the Middle East. These improvements were planned to be provided by the states who are willing to do it and more developed countries like Turkey and the US.

Moreover, these two countries had some common interest in the Middle East such as solving the conflicts in Iraq; stopping terrorism and sustaining stability; maintaining good relationships in the region; having benefited from the natural resources with good relations, and bringing in the states of the middle east to the global economic market and so on. However, even though Turkey thought there should be a kind of reform in the area, this should be conducted by the states in the Middle East themselves. It should be conducted with the help of outside actors, not conducted directly from outside with military force.

This was the point where Turkey had disagreements. So the US’s bill about the troops going to Iraq got rejected in the Parliament and this opened a crack in their relationship. However, The US didn’t respond well and detained Turkish soldiers for nearly 3 days in Baghdad without a valid reason. This widened the negative gap between the foreign policies of the two countries even more.

Along with these, however, Turkey had some beneficial developments as well with its historical ally. Turkey was supported in the EU membership process and accepted as a strategic partner by The US after its powerful and effective stand during the Middle East issues. 

So, the big picture above shows us that there were constant conflicts and disagreements during Bush tenure between Turkey and The US which means a constant change in Turkish foreign policy against The US in a more negative direction. Although there was a relatively more positive and constructive attitude with the Obama administration, the continuing conflicts in the Middle East kept Turkey’s foreign policy towards The US more distant than the period before the 2000s.