Turkey & Macedonia

Scholars and journalists have argued that Turkey’s new foreign policy vision is a result of the country’s geopolitical significance, in addition to its Muslim population and cultural and historical ties with neighboring countries, and that this change cannot be viewed as the country giving up its long-standing European Union membership bid, in interviews with the Aksiyon weekly.
Muhammed Nureddin, the director of Beirut Strategic Research Center, considered the old foreign policy strategy as one challenging its past, but says that with the new vision, Turkey is becoming a regional power. “With the Turkey’s new foreign policy, the world is now closer to peace. The attitude of Turkey in international politics is based on the idea of justice. The moral principles pursued by Turkey make its image better in the eyes of the people,” he added.The director of Turkey’s Marshall Fund, Özgür Ünlühisarcıklıoğlu, underlined the risks stemming from the new foreign policy understanding and noted that there should be a clear definition of the close relations with Iran so as not to disturb the West. He also noted that Turkey’s cooperative stance with Hamas and Sudan’s leader Omar al-Bashir could produce trouble in its relations with the West and Israel. Secondly, the zero problems with neighbors strategy could create tensions with other neighbors.

Fayyaz Chaudhry, the editor of foreign policy news at a Pakistani news agency, regarded the improving relations of Turkey and Asian countries as helpful in Turkey’s EU bid and stated that Turkey’s initiatives to reach a settlement between Afghanistan and Pakistan are a result of the new foreign policy vision. “Both of the countries need a new actor apart from the US for the achievement of reconciliation attempts. If Turkey can boost relations between these two countries, this will be a great success for Turkish diplomacy.”

“So far Turkey has been defined as the bridge between East and West. However, this definition is not enough to give a clear description of Turkey. It is now an active diplomatic player in both East and West,” said Fehmi Hüveydi, a journalist from Egypt and underlined the mediation efforts of Turkey, mainly in Middle East, and recalled that  Egypt was uneasy about the active role of Turkey in the region. However, it was appeased by Turkey’s remarks that convinced Egypt that Turkey should not be seen as its rival in the region.

The weekly Aksiyon  devoted its latest cover issue to a current debate on whether a change concerning Turkish foreign policy priorities in international politics, which are based on an alliance with the West, the US and western European countries, has been undertaken which will ultimately result in a closer stance with eastern countries.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on Tuesday in the AK party group meeting that “our foreign policy is directed towards the West but it does not mean that Turkey will turn its back on its neighbors in the north, south or east.”

Aksiyon claims that Erdoğan’s remarks show that the greatest ambition for Turkish foreign relations is being an EU member which the prime minister thinks will not constitute an obstacle to developing better relations with other countries. Some EU member’s voicing their rejection and discontent of Turkey’s EU bid has created a deceleration in the process. However, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu advocates that as an EU member, Turkey will be instrumental in bridging the EU and Gulf countries.

Despite some arguments that the new strategy for Turkish foreign policy is neo- Ottomanism, Turkey has been quite successful in establishing promising relations with countries that were not under Ottoman rule like Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The “zero problems with neighbors” strategy produced and pursued by Davutoğlu has facilitated the dialogue with close neighbors and is considered a courageous step in demolishing barriers to resolve Turkey’s long-lasting problems of like the Armenia and Cyprus issues.

Gökhan Bacık from Gaziantep Zive University stated that Turkey has got over the psychology of the Cold War era recently and underlined the importance of the perception of Turkey to its close neighbors. “When the country does not obey the rules set by the established elites, a field of opportunities waits for Turkey because of its Ottoman history and Islamic background.”

Turkey is now emerging as a fair broker due to its tough mediation efforts in problems and conflicts in Eurasia. The West sees Turkey’s role as essential and helpful in the domestic conflicts in Leb anon and the disputes between Syria and the US. Moreover, Turkey has been able to bring together hostile countries like Afghanistan with Pakistan along with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. In addition, Turkey has been playing a very active role in easing the tensions between Russia and Georgia and Armenia and Azerbaijan. Therefore, with a record number of votes Turkey was able to be elected to permanent membership of the UN Security Council with the votes of 151 countries.