Author name:
جليل عمر علي
Supervisor name:
علي حسن نيسان
Key words:
- السياسة الخارجية
- سياسة الخارجية التركية
- سياسة الخارجية التركية تجاه الشرق الاوسط
- دور تركيا الاقليمية
Abstract:
Since the early nineties of the twentieth century, the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the end of the security obsession of Turkey, the falters of Gulf War 2, peaceful settlement process of Arab - Israel conflict, emergence of New World Order, and the occupation of Iraq by United States and its allies at the beginning of twenty - first century and its immense falter, resulted in clear influence on strategic conditions in the Middle East, which comprises the Arab states as the greatest part, while Turkey is the other important part. The Turkish vision expressed its concentration basically on the Middle East, in response to its geopolitical position which requires paying attention to regional environment as a source of threat to the national security or to establish economic relationships to preserve the country interests, or as an area of movement and international and territorial influence. During the early nineties of the previous century, as a result of the collapse of the former Soviet Union, fears overran Turkey because of losing its strategic position with respect to the United States and the western states in general. However, the breakout of Gulf War 2 saved Turkey from fears and immediately participated in the war partially, by opening its airspace and military bases for the international alliance forces against Iraq. Turkey proved that in spite of changing international system from bi - polarity to mono - polarity, it has not lost its geographic significance. The war resulted in security and economic forfeiture to Turkey. At the economical level, Gulf War 2 and the economic blockade on Iraq caused great forfeiture particularly the money that Turkey was getting for letting Iraqi petrol pass through Turkish territories towards world markets. In addition, Iraq is a terrestrial gate for Turkey towards Arabic Gulf. At the security level, the war caused a security gap within Iraqi lands, as the result of the Kurds’ controlling their region after 1991. Such events caused unprecedented problems for Turkey, which increased PKK power.The Gulf War 3 (2003) broke out at the beginning of this century. Iraqi Occupation War made Turkey’s fear deeper towards Kurdish issue as a result of increasing Kurdish demands in Iraq, and reducing Turkish influence because of the rejection of Turkish parliament and government to open northern bloc in front of United States army, in addition to the Turkish fear from the possibility of the arise of a Kurdish state close to its south border, and exploitation of the new situation by the Kurds of Turkey and PKK to increase their national demands. At the level of the Arab - Israel conflict, Turkey adopted an imbalanced policy. It denounced Israeli military operations against Palestinians, but simultaneously established alliance with Israel, which led to considerable uproar among Arab and Islamic states. The Turkish government tried to belittle the significance of the agreement by confirming that it is not directed against any Arab or non - Arab country.Regarding the water policy, Turkey utilized its control on the riverhead of Tigers and Euphrates as a form of pressure on both Iraq and Syria in order to achieve its national interests at the security level by forcing Iraq and Syria to stop their support for PKK. Thesis Outline; This study comprises three chapters in addition to the preface and conclusions. Chapter one studies Turkish foreign policy since the arise of the new Turkish state till Gulf War 2 and the fundamentals which Turkey enjoys, in addition to the study of the perception and role of Turkey in the Middle East in three sections. The first section deals with Turkish foreign policy before the collapse of former Soviet Union. The second section discusses the elements which Turkey has to support their foreign policy that has a strategic location, big military power, its population and economic characteristics The third section, studies the concept of the Middle East and its denotations, as well as the application of the fundamentals of Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East.Chapter two deals with the variables that influence the approach of Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East. This chapter is divided into three sections. Section one postulates the internal variables impact on Turkish foreign policy as military institution, political parties, lobbying and interests groups, and public opinions. The second section is about the regional variables that have influence over Turkish foreign policy since the Gulf War 2, followed by the peaceful compromise of Arab - Israel conflict, the occupation of Iraq (2003), and the Israeli war against Lebanon (2006).The third section elaborates the international variables since the collapse of the former Soviet Union up to date. Chapter three, which is the final one, is devoted to the study of the Turkish foreign policy towards the Middle East. The chapter is divided into four sections. The first section discussed Turkish foreign policy toward Arab countries, the Kurdish cause, water problems and Turkish attitude on the occupation of Iraq. Section two deals with Turkish policy towards Iran at the levels of security dimension and regional competition. The third section explains the Turkish foreign policy toward Israel, and its military coalition and economic cooperation with Israel, as well as the Turkish policy toward (Arab - Israel) conflict and Turkey’s attitude on it. The last section attempts to analyze and predict the future of Turkish foreign policy on the Middle East at the level of two basic scenes : the scene of continuity and observation, and the scene of receptiveness and intervention.
