Turkey's Geopolitical Situation

[The Lawspeaker]

BAKU - Located between West and East, the Republic of Turkey links Europe to the Middle East and the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. The country also controls two maritime chokepoints and holds significant economic, military and cultural influence throughout the region. However, the union between the country’s capital-rich cosmopolitan western provinces and the underprivileged conservative eastern regions has shaped a duality in the geopolitical mindset of Turkey.

LONDON - Having one foot in Europe and one foot in the Middle-East, Turkey’s geographical and political position in the world means it has a particularly important role to play in the stability of world politics. The country’s steady lean towards the Islamic faith is a story that started roughly a century ago when Turkey was revolutionised under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

An #Iranian nuclear #breakout would spur a proliferation cascade throughout the Middle East, starting with the #Arab nations.

BAKU - After being elected into another term in June 2018, President Erdogan of Turkey is getting ready to construct an ambitious new waterway on the European side of Istanbul. The canal will be the third megaproject in the city after a new continent-crossing bridge was completed in 2016 and the world’s largest airport will be finished by the end of the year. Yet, the government’s vision for a new canal also carries extensive geo-economic consequences for the Black Sea domain.

#Turkey and #Russia spent most of their histories in a bitter rivalry, fighting no less than twelve wars. Each conflict was driven by the prizes in and around the #BlackSea.

BAKU - As a bridge connecting Europe and Asia, Turkey sits in between two worlds. While the Middle East is undergoing a dramatic transition, Europe is as calm as it has ever been. Should this peace be disrupted, the changes that would occur in the Balkans and the Black Sea would affect Turkey, and, thus, determine its geopolitical objectives in Europe.

#Mediterranean nations like #Turkey, Greece, and Egypt are engaging in a maritime dance of political posturing, and further escalation is likely.

BAKU - Turkey is a transcontinental power, and, while the European side of the country is secure and calm, the situation could not be more different on the Asian front. The collapse of the Sykes-Picot agreement is disintegrating the territorial borders from within and in the subsequent vacuum of power, major nations seek to carve out their own spheres of influence. All these activities, directly and indirectly, affect Turkey and determine the country’s geopolitical objectives in Asia.

[The Lawspeaker]

BAKU - War is the continuation of politics by other means, and nowhere is this more evident than in Turkey’s involvement in the Syrian battlespace. Although policymakers in Ankara have genuine interests in Syria and see the ongoing fight as an exercise of geopolitics - the stakes are even higher for the Turkish President. For Erdogan, Syria is also about political survival as it defines his endgame.