Turkish Foreign Policy Trends Since 2002

Abstract

In recent years, the Turkish new foreign policy has caused a lot of debate in the field of politics as many researches and analysis centres have kept busy discussing the new Turkish policies. It has also drawn the attention of the big countries that are concerned about the changes in the region as they may affect their interests in it, especially when Turkey has gone with full power and capability towards the East trying to play a vital role. It is worth mentioning that Turkey has attempted over many years to enter the European Union and fulfilled most of the required conditions for that purpose. However, such attempt still encounters many obstacles with regard to joining the European Union. Due to such difficulty, Turkey has directed its political and diplomatic attention towards the region in an attempt to restore its leadership position through playing an essential role in the regional conflicts and initiating solutions and suggestions for peace. The new policy is based on the theory of zero problems raised by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Ahmed Oglu, thus it strives to end the territorial disputes with neighbouring countries to achieve greater stability and focus attention and activity on stabilizing the foreign relations. Turkey has also struggled to overcome the internal problems that limit its outward growing role.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s1p400