The Foreign Policy of Modern Turkey by Ozgur Tufekci

Author:Ozgur Tufekci [Tufekci, Ozgur]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Middle East, Turkey & Ottoman Empire, Political Science, Geopolitics, International Relations, General, Political Ideologies, Nationalism & Patriotism
ISBN: 9780755601240
Google: 2tySxgEACAAJ
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: 2019-12-26T22:30:01+00:00

Figure 5.1 Turkish–EU bilateral trade (US $ millions)

Another result of this outward-oriented strategy was improving relations with the Arab world. The relations with Gulf States, as well as Libya, Iraq and Iran, were enhanced during this era. In addition, while Turkey was attracting Arab capital, powerful holding companies of Turkey were involving in commercial trade in the Middle East and North Africa. In particular, Turkey's large-scale construction contracts in Libya, until Gaddafi's death in 2011, and elsewhere date from this period.54

Özal's main motivation was not only being a candidate country to the EU by scaling up its economic engagement with its neighbourhood, but also it was a strategy to diversify Turkey's relations. In this context, his statement clarifies this important point: “Turkey cannot put all its opportunities in one basket … If we commit all the burden of our trade to Europe, it will mean surrendering a great deal of our ability to control events to them. We need to diversify”.55 Within this framework, through his initiatives and mind-set, it is obvious that Özal's way of thinking was overlapping with the Westernist Eurasianism discourse. That is why, it would be logical to claim that the Westernist Eurasianism discourse was one of the main determinants of Turkish foreign policy making process in Özal era. The reason for that is that the logic of that era can not be merely explained by neo-Ottomanism or Turkism. It is the only logical explanation for that is the Westernist Eurasianism discourse, even if Özal did not declare that explicitly.

Indicator 4

It has been already underlined that Özal viewed foreign policy “as a branch of international trade relations”.56 In this sense, apart from establishing organisations in order to enhance regional states’ economic and political cooperation, the agreements, which were signed by Özal himself, are other indicators of his approach towards the enhancement of regional stability and national influence.

During the Özal era, a number of agreements were signed with neighbouring countries. For instance, the Agreement on Exchange Commodities, the Convertible Currency Protocol, and the Long-term Program: Economic, Trade, Scientific and Technological Cooperation were signed with the Soviet Union between 1986 and 1990. As a result of these agreements, the trade between Turkey and the Soviet Union was tripled from $411 million in 1985 to $1.5 billion in 1990.57 Another agreement, signed with Russia, was the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation. Following that treaty, Turkey opened its consulate in Baku, and the Soviet Union opened a consulate in Trabzon as well.58 Besides, it is worth saying that during the Özal leadership more international agreements than any other leader in Turkish history were signed.59 While these agreements were aiming to provide high level of economic relations (as pointed out in indicator three), they were also aiming to provide cultural and political relations with the mentioned states. In addition, all these agreements, to some extent, prove that Özal was purely neither pan-Turkist nor neo-Ottomanist. Yet, it was clear that his thinking was inspired by an Ottomanist and Turkist way of thinking.

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