Whither Turkey?
zlotx5
Mon, 07/17/2023 – 09:15
Turkish foreign policy is complicated. On the one hand, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is an ideologue committed to a Neo-Ottoman foreign policy. He aspires to make Turkey a world power again, as it once was before it became “the sick man of Europe.” He is also an Islamist who would like to make Turkey the leader of the Muslim world. He pursues an ambitious, interventionist foreign policy in such places as Syria, Libya, the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, and sub-Saharan Africa.
On the other hand, Erdogan is a pragmatist, and the product of a culture second to none when it comes to the art of bargaining. As Erdogan knows, Turkey is a country with great strengths and great weaknesses. It has a population of 80 million people, a strong military with the second-largest army in NATO, and a strategic location that makes it an asset to any potential ally. But its economy is weak, and it lives in a dangerous neighborhood. Turkey’s neighbors include Russia and Iran, two major powers. They also include Syria, a failed state, but one that gives sanctuary to a Kurdish group which most Turks believe to be a threat …read more
Source:: Hoover Institution
