Turkey's Policies in its Overlapping Neighbourhood with Russia and the EU
Cigdem Ustun, Gediz University
Turkey’s neighbourhood collides with Russian and EU neighbourhoods where all three actors are putting effort to create a ring of friends either through hard or soft power instruments. After the Cold War, in the 1990s the EU had a hands-off attitude towards the Caucasus, Black Sea and the Central Asia, Turkey was eager to play its cultural card to make a name for itself as a proactive actor in these regions. However, it did not take long to comprehend the impact of Russia on economic, security and political affairs of the regional countries even though the Soviet Union collapsed in the beginning of the 1990s. On the southern neighbourhood Turkey had a more aloof attitude towards the regional conflicts and debates. Therefore, it has been difficult for Turkey to keep abreast with the changing cyclical international system in the 1990s. But in the 2000s, both in the southern (Mediterranean and the Middle East) and in the northern (the Black Sea and the Caucasus) neighbourhood Turkey started acting as an active economic actor rather than sole political and security one. In the new international setting Turkey started focusing on its soft power potential more. Thus, it has been observed that Turkey changed some of its policies towards its neighbouring countries i.e. intensified economic and financial relations, cultural exchange programmes, increased people to people contacts. In this framework this paper will focus on the dynamics of Turkish foreign policy towards these overlapping neighbours while answering the following questions; 1- How does Turkey perceive the other two actors and their policies in its neighbourhood? 2- How does Turkey see its own role in its neighbourhood? 3- How does Turkey locate its changing foreign policy in its EU accession ambitions?