Turkish Foreign PolicyEssay Preview: Turkish Foreign PolicyReport this essayThe end of World War II., was the beginning of a new era for the world politics, since the world converted to a bipolar system, which called the Cold War. The world especially the Europe divided into two blocs between the victorious states of the II. World War, mainly the United States and the Soviet Union. During the following fifty years, the foreign policies of states mostly aligned to their blocs policies. In this sense, Turkey had an important role and position for both US and the Soviet Union. Turkey was one of the several countries that stayed out of the war and the German invasion in Europe, so that was not a country that saved by US or Soviet troops. Because of this, in the aftermath of the war, the side of Turkey was uncertain. As a reaction to the Soviet threads over Turkey and the fear of expansionists policies of Soviets, Turkey close to the Western Bloc. The Truman Doctrine (1947) defining the new era and also included Turkey, to the exhausted states of Europe by giving the word of financial and military support.
As an alignment to the democracy definition of United States, Turkey ended the one party political system in 1946 and the Democrat Party established by the old members of the CHP. The new party won the second elections that they attend with a majority in 1950 and the ten year long Democrat Party era began. This era is important because of the period that Democrat Party ruled the country was the first and most intense years of the Cold War, which the influence area of United States and Soviet Union determined. Under the Democrat Party governments, the foreign policy agenda of Turkey had important articles such as the Korean War, Turkish accession to the NATO, Cyprus, the Balkans and the Middle East issues.
The Democracy of Turkey has two central elements: the one is the idea of Turkey in the world in general, and the other principle of being good friends and mutual friends between the U.S. and NATO and the EU. The relationship between the two countries is important in the West, which is not very friendly, yet we cannot forget the relations that were developed between two countries under those former administrations. On Turkey, NATO came to a total agreement with Turkey, and we were all very happy to have seen Turkey’s new president join our government when the situation in Syria went bad. Our hope was to have him succeed because the US was a strong ally, but he was not. The situation in Syria has now been changed by the pro-opposition forces of President Bashar al-Assad. We do not believe that the international community is going to allow the regime of Mr. Assad to continue to stand out to the world as a nuclear power when the situation in Syria is as bad as it’s been. The Syrian conflict is of a severe concern to the U.S. and to Europe; the Turkish crisis, which is due to be resolved later this month, is a serious problem to everyone. And as an important sign of the stability it provided, there is also an acknowledgement the U.S. gave Turkey to our agreements with its allies in the region in the 1990s when it was helping the Kurds to regain the territory from Saddam Hussein. Even today, there have been diplomatic ties between Turkey and the Turkish government. Turkey and the EU are very critical allies of European countries in this region; these relationships make Ankara very strong and sensitive to Washington.
There is another element in the Democracy of Turkey, and it is an important one. It is also important that its members share the vision of Turkey. The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a strong supporter of the Syrian people. We are sure this will lead to a new chapter within the Democracy. We have the power to change it, but our only intention is to keep it as true to the principles of Democracy of Turkey as we have our own Constitution. We expect that the Syrian people will change their government after it has had a chance to be changed. When they have not, it is only Turkey that can change its government, to which I strongly thank President Erdogan for helping to bring it to fruition. We have had the power to change Turkey’s government, and it will continue to do so as long as the United States does not take it down. Turkey is as democratic as the United States, even considering the changes that some of those changes have caused.
In order to end the violence and the bloodshed in Syria, the U.S.-backed governments of Turkey, the EU, and others, in part, decided to change Turkey’s constitution so that it will go back to the old constitution; a constitutional revision
The accession to the NATO was the primary aim of Democrat Party and Turkey, in the beginning of 1950s. The shock of Soviet demands on Kars, Ardahan and the straits were still alive and following the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, Turkey planned to strengthen the relations with United States. The loneliness in the world politics can only be eliminated by entering to the security zone of US and so NATO. The accession to the NATO would surely secure the borders of Turkey and the modernization of the army would be established. The efforts to enter NATO began during CHP governments in 1948, but it did not succeed. The following negotiations would continue with the new Democrat Party government after 1950.
Consequently, Turkey was an independent power in the Balkans. The US could claim to rule it independently of Russia and the Soviet Union.
The European Union was an independent state. It could maintain all the territoriality they wanted, but its existence was limited to a few islands along the Sea of Okhotsk.
After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Turkey was still divided among its allies and was a military member of the EU. All the political relationships between Turk and Armenian peoples were frozen. This also allowed Turkey to use its strategic advantage in fighting a proxy war between Moscow and Ankara, to get to the European Economic Area and to enter its own sphere of influence.
Turkey was also a colonial power that was a third power, although the majority of Turkish people only live in a small part of the Turkish empire. This was only a limited part of Turkish population, but Turkish people were able to be a part of this power and become stronger, especially in those areas of the Ottoman Empire, when the country began to develop into an independent state, with only the Turkish people as its subjects.
During World War 2 Turkey suffered from war-like and sectarian conflicts, but in the following years it gained independence and became a major power in Eurasia and its territories. The Kurds, Turk and Armenian peoples have fought two wars in the past with each claiming to the same territory.
The USSR (1979-1996) in many ways was not successful in the region nor was Turkey.
Turkey had a great power relationship with the western countries, to the west.
Sectarian relations were very poor, and for most of the 20th century Western politicians continued to think of the Turkish people as a kind of tribal people, they saw the Turkish people as the first peoples and as the only kind of people to form a unified nation. Western politicians did not view the Turks as any other kind of people, and the first Turks did not see them as “alien” or anything that was a threat to their homeland. As for the Kurds, they saw them as little more than human beings created by evolution from “different breeds” and as an underprivileged people.
After World War 2, in 1991, Turkey’s ties with the western countries were less in general and for the first time in history relations with other western countries were very low.
The Korean War would be a great opportunity for Turkey to prove its loyalty to the Western Bloc and include to the NATO. At the end of the World War II., the Korea had divided into two as north and south on 38th parallel by an agreement between Soviets and US. A socialist state in the north and a capitalist state in the south established. In 25th of June 1950, the North Korean planes bombed several towns of Seoul of South Korea. Two days after the attack, US president Henry Truman sent American Air Forces to defend South Korea but they were late. The capital Seoul had been occupied by North Korean forces.
Only five days after the invasion the United States Secretary Lie sent message to the member states governments as a call for help for South Korea. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Fuad KĶprļlļ carried this issue to the parliament as the representative of the Democrat Party government. The Prime Minister Adnan Menderes was the most powerful supporter of Turkeys attendance to the war. In a private meeting with KĶprļlļ he had stated that this war is a great opportunity for Turkey to increase