Turkish Foreign Policy since the Ottoman Empire - Essay Example

? Turkish Foreign Policy since the Ottoman Empire Introduction Since time immemorial, Turkey had been a predominantly a Muslim country that was controlled by the Sultanates of the Ottoman Empire. However, through a nationalist movement led by Musataf Kemal, Turkey was able to establish itself as a prosperous secular state that could assert itself as a force in the Central African region. To establish itself to be the modern day Turkey, it had to employ numerous strategies as the Ottoman Empire under the leadership of the Sultanates was greatly opposed to an independent Turkish state with a distinct language, dress code and run through secular laws. The early leadership of Abdulhamid II (1876-1909) that laid claim that the Ottoman Sultan was the universal leader of the Muslims used propaganda and counter-propaganda. However, he did not anticipate that opposition could come from an Islamic perspective. This Sunni idea was largely opposed by the Shiite Iran who did not recognize the Ottoman Empire as it occupied what was traditionally land owned by the Arabs, due to endless persecution, the As Shiites and the Sunnis waged an endless war depending on which side they supported.1 As a method to re-engineer the state towards attaining legitimacy, the Ottoman Empire bought about education through the imposition of uniform religious values through primary and secondary education. This has however been proved to have been the Ottoman Empire’s way of propaganda to educate the ills of the Shiites to the Iraqi population which was perceived to be a moral duty. Finally, it was proved that the attempts of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire fell flat on its face but formed the basis of the republican Turkish nation building, which has been a success. This historical heritage of past concepts and conflicts explains the current geopolitical occurrences in the Middle East and Central Asia.2 As at the imminent collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the sultanate became only limited to the plateau at Anatolia. The implementation of the Treaty of Serves weakened the empire as it lost its geopolitical positioning that deprived it of its most important resources. This led to the formation of nationalist movements under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal, which culminated in the National Pact of Ankara of January 1920 that resolved to claim those parts of the empire occupied by Turkish populations that laid the basis for the Kemal foreign policy that focused on national unity buttressed by economic and political independence. Through nationalist uprisings and rebellions, the forces led by Kemal were able to crush the Armenian Republic as well as defeating the Greeks. In the process, it was able to negotiate itself into occupying Asia Minor and East Thrace. The Lausanne Treaty set the stage for the Kemalist foreign relation policy especially Greek-Turkish relations marked with the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the beginning of Turkey under Kemal. This marked the proclamation of Turkey as a republic after the Sultan had been driven away and recognition of Turkey as a secular state.3 Thereafter the Kemal regime focused on pursuing a foreign policy of maintaining peace as Turkey had been involved in a conflict for almost a decade. To achieve this, even when there was the First World War and the upheavals in South Eastern Europe, Turkey adopted a neutral stand. For example, Turkey signed a treaty with Russia known as the Turco-Soviet Treaty of Neutrality and Non-Agression that emphasized its neutrality and no acts of aggression in whatever circumstances. What was integral to Turkey then was the securing of its borders through emphasis on territorial integrity as well as the independence of Turkey as republic.4 Later Turkey forged a common foreign policy with Russia to the extent of refusing to be members of the League of Nations due to the suspicion of the Western powers, Turkey was also apprehensive of some articles in the treaty forming the League of Nations. After the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union Turkey has changed its foreign and security policy that has been characterized by assertion of its interests in the region. Through the discovery of new countries in Central Asia which most of them formerly belonged to the Soviet Union, Turkey has found that it has a bigger role to play in the geopolitical process of the Central Asia region. Coupled with the low economic conditions present in these nations, Turkey was able to offer leadership to the young nations due to its superior economic power as compared to the less developed nations.5 The success of Turkey’s forays into these new lands was partly contributed by nationalist and religious groupings such as the Nationalist Action Party of Alparslan Turkes and the Zaman and Turkiye newspapers distributed in these Central Asian countries. It is important to note that though all these groups were after increasing the influence of Turkey in the region, they differed on what approach to take. While the pan-Turkist groups wanted a significant regional bloc based on the Turkic ethnicity, the religious groups preferred the re-establishment of Turkey as leader in the Muslim world.6 Turkey portrayed itself through is politicians buoyed by the strategic location of Turkey who were in support of the Western world’s recognition of Turkey as an important ally in stopping the spread of Islam fundamentalism in the volatile Central Asia region. However, Turkey was faced with opposition from Russia and Iran in its quest to establish itself to acquire a sphere of influence in the Central Asia region. Russia wanted to keep on hold of the former Soviet republics while Iran, which had an almost similar historical and cultural relationship as Turkey, saw it as a key rival. The new nations in Central Asia were also skeptical of the influence of Turkey, as they wanted to chart their own path economically and politically. Therefore, in order to overcome the likely resistance of its influence over the Central Asia states, Turkey adopted a foreign policy that put it at a privileged position over those states while at the same time respecting their sovereignty not to establish pan-Turkist implications. Through these policies, Turkey was to play a role in helping the countries to be pluralist in their democracies while maintaining being secular. Turkey also prevailed upon the new nations in the Central Asia region to follow constitutionalism through the respect of the rule of law and adopt the capitalist free market economy, Turkey also implored upon them to cooperate, as they would both benefit mutually as a strategy of economic foreign policy. Through its bilateral diplomatic efforts, Turkey has been able to bring the Central Asian nations under the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) apart from offering financial aid aimed at making the nations develop market-oriented economies. This has not been without problems as the countries in Central Asia have continuously relied on Russia for economic survival as well as Turkey’s limited financial and economic resources. Turkey has also been able to establish itself as a player through cultural relations for example changing the alphabet in the Central Asian countries from the Cyrillic to the Turkish version of the alphabet and the print media. There are forces that have necessitated Turkey to develop cooperation model as a way of foreign policy in the Central Asia region. Under the economic driving forces, Turkey was forced to cooperate with other states in order to make the economic goals of the Central Asia region be realized as opposed to acting independently. In order to achieve this, it developed economic strategies that would enable her maximize the economic expectations of the Central Asia region.7 The political driving forces compelled Turkey not to behave independently but work with other nations in the Central Asia region to maximize its political expectations in the region. It also marked the quest by Turkey to assert itself in the Central Asia region by competing with other nations that already had a sphere of influence in the region such as Russia, Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia.8 Under the socio-cultural driving forces as a factor that forced Turkey to cooperate with the Central Asian countries, it is found that Turkey emphasized the common features it shared with the Central Asians. It did this as a way of trying to assert its influence though with little success as most of the Central Asian countries were of Slav or Persian origins and therefore could only be easily swayed by the Russian or Iranian diplomacy as opposed to the mostly Islamic Turkish influence. These factors prevented Turkey from having an independent foreign policy forcing it to adopt cooperation as a strategy in its foreign policy.9 Geographically, Turkey was compelled to use some routes that required cooperation in order to access the Central African countries. These routes included the Persian Gulf and through the Caucasus region to transport Turkish goods and therefore it had to cooperate with these regions. Bibliography Antonis Klapis, Turkey’s Search for a New Foreign Policy-1925: The View of Greek Diplomacy Gamze, Gungormus Kona, Central Asia and Turkish Foreign Policy. Turkish Review. 2005 Heinz, Kramer, Will Central Asia Become Turkey’s Sphere of Influence Selim, Deringil, The Struggle against Shiism in Hamidian Iraq: A Study in Ottoman Counter-Propaganda, 1990 Read More