Userboxes Turkey This article is part of the series: Politics of Turkey Politics President (List) Abdullah Gl Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Council of Ministers (Cabinet) 60th, established on August 29,2007 Parliament Kksal Toptan (Speaker) Political parties Elections Presidential: 2000, 2007 General Elections: 1977, 1983, 1987, 1991, 1995, 1999, 2002, 2007 Foreign relations EU accession National Security Council Legal system Constitution Human rights Secularism Law enforcement Administrative Divisions Provinces (İller) Districts (İleler) See also: Regions (Blgeler) Other countries :commons:Atlas of Turkey Atlas   Template:Politics of Turkey view • Template talk:Politics of Turkey talk • [ edit] Part of the series Foreign relations of Republic of Turkey Foreign relations Economic relations European Union Customs union France Germany Greece United States Azerbaijan Israel Iran Armenia International Organizations Ministry of Foreign Affairs Turkish diplomatic missions Turkish diplomats Turkish diaspora See also: Politics of Turkey

Foreign relations of the Republic of Turkey refers to the policies pursued by the Turkish government in its external relations with the international community. Historically, based on the Western-inspired reforms of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, such policies have placed heavy emphasis on Turkey's relationship with the Western world, especially those relating to the United States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the European Union. The post Cold War period has seen a diversification of relations, with Turkey seeking to strengthen its regional presence in the Balkans, the Middle East and the Caucasus, as well as its traditional goal of E.U. membership. In conducting its foreign policy, Ankara is influenced by a number of external and internal factors, encompassing strategic and security interests, historical and cultural influences and the internal political situation.

Relations by regions

European Union

Main article: Accession of Turkey to the European Union

Turkish application to join the European Economic Community (now the European Union) as an associate member in 1959 soon resulted in associate membership in 1963, with full membership being acknowledged as the final goal. However, problems in foreign policy such as the Cyprus conflict and the internal political turbulence from the 1970s until the early 1980s forced Turkey to delay applying for full membership of the European Community until 1987. The application was rejected, although the E.C. did say that Turkish membership could occur at some point in the future.

An EU-Turkey Customs Union came into effect on January 1 1996, allowing goods to travel between Turkey and the E.U. member states without customs restrictions, although it crucially stopped short of lifting restrictions in areas such as agriculture.

The European Union confirmed Turkey's status as candidate for membership at the European Council's Helsinki Summit in 1999. The accession talks did not follow immediately, however, as the E.U. said Turkey had to make significant reforms, particularly in the field of human rights, before the talks could begin. Turkey's current administration has identified EU membership as its top priority, and has taken many - and sometimes controversial - reform packages through the Parliament aimed at gradually harmonizing Turkey with E.U. standards. Since October 2005, Turkey has formally started accession negotiations with the E.U. and these will be based on the acquis communautaire.

Europe

Turkey has close historical, cultural, economic and political ties with the Balkan states, which are important for Turkey as they are the country's gateway to continental Europe. Turkey attaches importance to the creation of an atmosphere of mutual understanding and peaceful co-habitation through closer ties with the Balkan countries, which would lead to the preservation of peace and stability in the region. Turkey has participated in NATO operations and peacekeeping missions, contributing to the KFOR and the United Nations police mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), the EU police mission (EUPM) in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as the EU-led police mission “Proxima” in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Turkey is also contributing to the EUFOR-ALTHEA. For the reconstruction efforts; Turkey is part of launching the Southeastern European Cooperation Process (SEECP), and the Multinational Peace Force Southeast Europe (MPFSEE)/Southeastern Europe Brigade (SEEBRIG). Turkey also plays a role in regional economic initiatives as well as the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe initiated by the EU and the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI).

Turkey announced its support for the 2004 Annan Plan for Cyprus. The plan was accepted by the Turkish Cypriots (but not by 2/3, although a simple majority was needed), but overwhelmingly (3/4) rejected by the Greek Cypriots. Turkey continues to recognize the TRNC at the expense of the Cypriot government in the south, and thus far, the Turkish Embassy in (north) Nicosia is the only official diplomatic mission in the TRNC. The issue of recognition became a thorn in Turkey's candidacy for European Union membership, particularly after the internationally-recognized south was admitted to the Union in 2004.

North America

Main article: Turkey-United States relations

Friendship between Turkey and the United States dates to the late 18th century and was officially sealed by a treaty in 1830. The present close relationship began with the Second Cairo Conference in December 4-6, 1943, and the agreement of July 12 1947 which implemented the Truman Doctrine. As part of the cooperative effort to further improve Turkish economic and military self-reliance, the United States has loaned and granted Turkey more than $12.5 billion in economic aid and more than $14 billion in military assistance.

Turkey sided with the United States during the Korean War of the early 1950s, providing active military support to the U.S. forces. During the Gulf War of 1990, the Turkish Armed Forces contributed to the coalition forces, and Turkey supported the initiatives of the U.S. in the region. The country hosts the Incirlik Air Base, a major operations base of the United States Air Force, since 1954. Following its membership in 1952, Turkey became the bulwark of NATO's southeastern flank, directly bordering Warsaw Pact countries and risking nuclear war on its soil during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

In the post Cold War environment, though still committed to its close relations with Washington, Turkey became a more independent actor. Although Turkey supported the United States in the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan after September 11, the Iraq War faced strong domestic opposition in the country. A government motion to allow U.S. troops to attack Iraq from Turkey's border failed to reach the necessary majority. ^[1] This led to a cooling in relations between the U.S. and Turkey and fears of a permanent rift due to the situation in Iraq.^[2] Turkey is particularly cautious about an independent Kurdish state arising from a destabilised Iraq; it has previously fought an insurgent war on its own soil, in which an estimated 37,000 people lost their lives, against the PKK (listed as a terrorist organization by a number of states and organisations, including the U.S. and the EU).^[3][4] This led the Turkish government to put pressure on the U.S. to clamp down on insurgent training camps in northern Iraq, without much success.<ref name="TR_Iran" /> On October 17, 2007, the Turkish Parliament voted in favour of allowing the Turkish Armed Forces to take military action against the PKK rebels based in northern Iraq.^[5] In response, U.S. President George W. Bush stated that he did not believe it's in Turkey's interests to send troops into Iraq.^[6]

The U.S. and Turkey have had a Joint Economic Commission and a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement for several years. In 2002, the two countries indicated their joint intent to upgrade bilateral economic relations by launching an Economic Partnership Commission. In 2005, Turkish exports to the U.S. totaled $4.9 billion, and U.S. exports to Turkey totaled $5.3 billion.

Central Asia

Turkey has strong cultural and linguistic ties with the predominantly Turkic nations of Central Asia. Economic and political relations are developing rapidly, and are likely to grow even more quickly with Turkey's recent elimination of visa requirements for citizens of the Central Asian Turkic republics. The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) has formed an alliance of trade between Turkey and the Central Asian states. Turkey is even working on developing solid relations with the other nations of the region, namely Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

Afghanistan was the second country to recognize the Republic of Turkey, after the Soviet Union. Turkey supports the Bonn Process and the Central Government in Afghanistan. Turkey participated in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) since its inception and assumed the command of ISAF II between June 2002 and February 2003, and ISAF VII between February and August 2005. Turkey provides training for the Afghan National Army and Police Force. Turkey has undertaken a number of reconstruction projects in the fields of education, health and agriculture. Turkish construction firms are also active in the country with investments.

Middle East

The father of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk created a radical shift in Turkish domestic and foreign policy by instituting a strong tradition of secular democracy, which had its roots in the West. Atatürk was a Europhile in many ways and made numerous reforms to modernize Turkey, based on the principles of positivist and rationalist Enlightenment, which he believed would foster educational and scientific progress. In this period, Turkey shifted increasingly towards the West, while culturally and ideologically distancing itself from the conservative mindset, practices and traditions of the Middle East, which were regarded by the Turkish revolutionaries as the source of the backwardness that had caused the Ottoman Empire to collapse.

Turkish-Iranian relations have essentially been peaceful since 1923. There are an estimated 14 to 25.5 million Turkic speakers in Iran (the Iranian Azeris and Turkmens) who mostly live in the northern regions of the country. Both nations regard the Seljuks as their forefathers, and share many cultural traits. However, a period of coldness in bilateral relations existed following the 1979 Iranian Revolution due to the conflicting ideologies of secular Turkey and theocratic Iran.^[7] Ankara has long suspected Iran's support for Islamist organizations and militant groups in Turkey.^[8] Nevertheless, the economic and political relations between the two countries have significantly improved in the recent years. Today, Iran and Turkey cooperate in a wide variety of fields that range from fighting terrorism and drug trafficking, and promoting stability in Iraq and Central Asia. Both countries have strongly advocated Iraqi territorial integrity since the beginning of the 2003 Iraqi invasion.^[9] Iran and Turkey also have very close economic relations. Both countries are part of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) and both were once members of the CENTO alliance. Turkey receives a significant number of Iranian tourists every year,^[10][11] while Iran is a major natural gas supplier of Turkey. Turkish construction companies have undertaken important projects in Iran, such as the new Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran.^[12]

Among all the borderlines between Turkey and its neighbours, the biggest is the one with Syria. Turkey's relationship with Syria has not always been on the good side. The water disputes were a major element of conflict in the relations. Turkey has constructed several dams on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers to develop the region. The self-annexation of the Hatay State to Turkey in 1939 was never recognized by Syria, which continues to show the Hatay Province of Turkey as part of Syria's territory in its maps. Hatay became independent from Syria, then a French mandate, in 1938, and became a parlimentary republic with an ethnic Turkish majority; and 8 months later it decided to join Turkey with a referendum. Turkey had alleged Syria of ties to the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization internationally by a number of states and organizations, including the USA, NATO and the EU. The two countries came to the brink of war when Turkey threatened military action if Syria continued to shelter Abdullah Öcalan in Damascus, his long-time safe haven. Relations have improved since October 1998, when Öcalan left Damascus and Syria pledged to stop harboring the PKK rebels.

Israel

Turkey was the first country with a Muslim majority to formally recognize the State of Israel, on March 28, 1949; before Israel was admitted to the United Nations on May 11, 1949. Israel is considered by many as Turkey's closest ally in the world, after the United States.^[13] The primary reason for this close and intimate relationship between the Republic of Turkey and the State of Israel is due to the many similarities between the two nation states; both being secular, pluralist democracies. The founders of the State of Israel and prominent Israeli politicians such as David Ben-Gurion, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and Moshe Shertok had all studied in the leading Turkish schools of Istanbul in their youth, namely Galatasaray Lisesi and Istanbul University.

Israel has been a major supplier of arms to Turkey. Military, strategic, and diplomatic cooperation between Turkey and Israel is accorded very high priority by the governments of both countries, which share concerns with respect to the regional instabilities in the Middle East.^[14][15][16] In the book "Israel's Secret Wars", Benny Morris provides an account of how Mossad operatives based in Turkey infiltrated into Iraq and orchestrated a number of Iraqi Kurdish uprisings to weaken the Iraqi government. It has been reported that the Israeli Mossad played a major role in the capture of the PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in 1999.^[17] The Israeli and Turkish navies have conducted joint exercises. Turkey also provides its large air space (something Israel lacks) to the jets of the Israeli Air Force for training purposes, particularly the area around the Konya Air Base in central Anatolia. There is a plan to build a massive pipeline from Turkey to supply water, electricity, gas and oil to Israel.^[18] In 2000, Israel and Turkey signed a Free Trade Agreement.^[19] In the beginning of 2006, the Israeli Foreign Ministry characterized its relations with Turkey as "perfect". However, in February 2006, a visit paid by Khaled Meshal, leader of the newly elected Hamas, changed this status. Israeli diplomats went so far as to compare this visit to a possible official visit of Abdullah Öcalan (the imprisoned PKK leader) to Israel, but Turkish authorities immediately denounced this comparison as "irresponsible and erroneous". After Khaled Meshal paid an official visit to Russia, Turkish-Israeli relations entered a "cooling down" process. Some have suggested that this was only a public relations stunt to show the Islamic world that Turkey was on their side because Turkey had been silent in major issues important to Arabs and the Islamic community such as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Lebanon crisis.^[20] Israel has even advocated that Turkey make up a majority of peace keepers in Lebanon because it has said that it does not trust troops from other Islamic countries like Bangladesh and Malaysia.^[21]

The history of the Jewish-Turkish relations dates back to the medieval Khazar Empire. The Khazar Turks converted to Judaism at some point between the last decades of the 8th and the early decades of the 9th centuries AD.^[22] Later, in the 14th-16th centuries, the Ottoman Sultan Beyazid II invited the Sephardic Jews fleeing the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions to settle in the Ottoman Empire. The later record of warm relations dates to the 19th century, when the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, himself of Jewish origin, supported the Ottoman Empire in numerous disputes, particularly in the Berlin Congress of 1878. During the 1930s and 1940s, the Republic of Turkey again served as a safe haven for the European Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazi-perpetrated Holocaust.^[23]

South Caucasus

The former Soviet republics of the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia) are important for Turkey politically, economically, socially and culturally. The country develops policies in this region taking into account its strategic importance, due to its energy resources and pipeline corridors.

Even though Turkey was one of the first countries to recognize Armenia's independence in 1991, its has closed its border with Armenia and imposed economic sanctions on this state since the Nagorno-Karabakh War between Azerbaijan and Armenia in 1994; as a result of which the Azeri province of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent Azeri provinces have been invaded by Armenian forces. Turkey, the European Union and the United States recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as Azerbaijani territory. Armenia claims that Turkey is using the blockade in order to isolate their country with projects such as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Baku railway, both of which directly bypass Armenia. Both Armenian and Turkish politicians alike have expressed a desire for the blockade to be lifted, but little has been done.

Turkey shares a common culture and history with Azerbaijan. In addition, Turkish and Azerbaijani languages are mutually intelligible. Turkey has been a staunch supporter of Azerbaijan in its efforts to consolidate its independence, preserve its territorial integrity and realize its economic potential arising from the rich natural resources of the Caspian Sea. Turkey approaches the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict using the Minsk Process and standing by the principal of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Turkey supported indirect bilateral talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia. With the aim of playing a facilitator role, Turkey initiated a trilateral process of dialogue (Reykjavik, 2002 & Istanbul Summit, 2004) among the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia. The three states are also members of the BSEC, the OSCE and the Council of Europe, which provide international platforms of cooperation and dialogue between them.

There are currently no diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia. The land border between the two states remains closed since Armenia's occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven other provinces of western Azerbaijan^[24] in 1993, but airliner flights between Yerevan and Istanbul have resumed in 2005. In the recent years, large numbers of Armenian workers have moved to Turkey, around 40,000 in Istanbul alone, contributing to the build-up of closer relations between the two nations.^[25] Next to the closed land border, the disagreements over the definition of the Armenian Genocide remains the biggest issue in the tense relations between the two countries. Armenia claims that the deaths of as many as 1,500,000 Armenians during the final years of the Ottoman Empire were a result of state-sponsored genocide. Turkey rejects both the definition of "genocide" and the death toll of "1.5 million"; and insists that the deaths of "300,000"^[26] Armenians were a result of disease, famine and inter-ethnic strife;^[27] particularly citing the massacres committed by the Armenian Dashnak and Henchak rebels backed by the Russian Army in Eastern Anatolia, in which thousands of ethnic Turks and Kurds were killed.^[28]

Turkey has close partnership relations with Georgia. Turkish citizens can use the Batumi Airport in Georgia, which is run by Turkey's Tepe-Akfen-Vie consortium (TAV), without a visa or passport. Turkey views the Abkhazian and South Ossetian conflicts as a potential danger to peace and stability in the entire region. The resolution of these problems is essential for the preservation of peace and stability in the area. Turkey has shown a readiness to be a negotiator for the Abkhazian conflict.

International organizations

Main article: Turkey and International Organizations

Turkey is a founding member of the United Nations (1945),^[29] the OECD (1961),^[30] the OIC (1969),^[31] the OSCE (1973),^[32] and the G20 industrial nations (1999). Turkey is a member state of the Council of Europe (1949) and NATO (1952) as well as being in full accession negotiations with the European Union since 2005, having been an associate member since 1963. Turkey is also an associate member of the Western European Union since 1992 and signed the E.U. Customs Union agreement in 1995.

Turkey entered NATO in 1952 and serves as the organization's vital eastern anchor, controlling the Turkish Straits which lead from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean and sharing a border with Syria, Iraq, and Iran. A NATO headquarters is located in İzmir, and the United States has maintained air forces at the Incirlik Air Base in the province of Adana.

Turkey is also a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) since 1995. It has signed free trade agreements with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Israel, and many other countries. In 1992, Turkey and 10 other regional nations formed the BSEC to expand regional trade and economic cooperation.

Debates and frictions

Turkey and Greece have clashed for decades over the status of Aegean islands and over the extent of territorial waters and airspace. The tensions came to the brink of war on a number of occasions, most recently in 1996, when Greek and Turkish warships faced each other close to the disputed Imia-Kardak rocks. Only U.S. and NATO intervention subsided the conflict. In February 1999, relations between Greek officials and Abdullah Öcalan (holding a Greek Cypriot passport) and the role of the Greek Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, where Öcalan was captured by agents of the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT) caused crisis in relations between the two countries for a period of time; but relations have since improved, particularly following the earthquakes that struck both countries in 1999. However, the Imia/Kardak issue sprang up again on a smaller scale in 2004.

In World War I, an estimated 300,000 (per Turkish resources) to 1,500,000 (per Armenian resources) Armenians died during deportations from eastern Anatolia, where the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire were engaged in fighting, to modern Syria and Iraq, between 1915 and 1917. Armenia maintains that the Armenian Genocide was a deliberate and intentional attempt to exterminate the Ottoman Armenians. This view is also supported by most historians.^[33] The Ottoman government had maintained the view that the deportation was for security measures, since many Armenians, particularly the rebels of the Dashnak and Henchak organizations, were siding with the Russians.^[34] The Republic of Turkey insists that the deaths among the Armenians were a result of inter-ethnic strife, disease and famine during the turmoil of World War I. Today, the border between Turkey and Armenia has been shut since 1993 due to the Nagorno-Karabakh War between Armenia and Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan. Both this issue and the events of 1915-1917 remain large stumbling blocks on the way to opening the land border and establishing diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia.

The effects of Turkey's invasion of Cyprus in 1974, that followed a Greek coup d'etat on the island, backed by the Greek military junta which then ruled Greece and sought Enosis (Union) between Greece and Cyprus through installing the pro-Enosis Nikos Sampson in place of the Cypriot President Archbishop Makarios, continues to be one of the most hotly-contested issues in Turkish foreign relations. A Turkish Federated State, which later became the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) in 1983, was unilaterally declared on the island in 1975, and the UN Green Line has split the two sides ever since.

See also: , , and

References

• CIA World Factbook

See also

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey
• List of Turkish diplomats
• Turkish diplomatic missions
• Politics of Turkey
• Republic of Turkey
• Ottoman Empire

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