TURKEY’S FOREIGN POLICY AND ASPECTS OF GEOPOLITICAL PRIORITIES

Abstract

All states in the world are divided into three types: world-class states, regional states, and other states whose politics are of local importance. Turkey became a regional state with its independent policy. The collapse of the USSR meant avoiding the well-known “Soviet threat”. Turkey no longer had a common border with its “dangerous” northern neighbor, and Moscow’s influence over neighboring Turkey and the countries of the former socialist orientation fell sharply. This gave Ankara quite a lot of prospects. In particular, interests in the post-Soviet space in terms of establishing close cultural and religious ties, establishing relations with the newly independent republics of the South Caucasus and Central Asia. Ankara quickly sought to take advantage of the establishment of diplomatic relations and close cooperation with the Turkic republics that were formerly part of the USSR. However, the bright prospects were overshadow wed by the fact that in the early 1990s, Turkey was going through a difficult moment in foreign policy. With the end of the Cold War, the regional security problem for Turkey did not decrease, but became more acute and significantly increased. Regional conflicts did not subside, on the contrary Hot spots have expanded due to new conflicts (wars in the Persian Gulf, Yugoslavia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Chechnya). Growing regional tensions posed clear threats to Europe and Turkey. The situation was made even worse by the fact that the balance of regional powers characteristic of the Cold War had disappeared, and the countries of the Middle East, the Balkans and Central Asia already existed in a different system of coordinates, the outline of which was not yet complete, the situation for Turkey was aggravated by the increase in separatist activity. Thus, the end of the bipolar era did not bring stability and created many problems, both in the economy and in the field of security. It is the current international situation that led to his new geopolitical ambitions, and this paper attempts to cover these issues.