STANDING tall
As a valued member of international organizations with strong foreign economic and commercial relations around the world, Turkey continues to display its political clout in a new world order.
Despite various shifts and changes over the centuries, the core functions of diplomacy persist in the 21st century. However, the “ground” and “table” of diplomacy are now broader and more multi-layered—Turkish diplomats are among the pioneers of this new diplomacy.
In places where war, coups, failing states, suffering, oppression, and bloodshed are taking place, Turkish diplomats perform their duties uninterrupted and are devoted to protecting Turkish interests. They are in constant negotiations in capitals, international organizations, and the tables of various processes.
We have developed comprehensive consultations and cooperation methods including bilateral, trilateral, quadrilateral, and other sorts of multilateral mechanisms. We are going to make more use of those not only on political but also technical levels. We continue to make a substantial contribution to regional and global stability and order through diplomacy.
Turkey is the leading country in mediation initiatives in three different international organizations. We will devote even greater attention to resolving disputes and frozen conflicts in the upcoming period.
This year, a Turkish Ambassador was elected as the Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine. Likewise, two very competent Turkish women were elected to important international organizations—one as a judge to the European Court of Human Rights and one as a member of the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO). We reassumed the chairmanship of the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process, which was brought to life under our leadership. Moreover, Turkey will also be assuming the presidencies of the D-8 (Developing Eight) Organization for Economic Cooperation, Southeast European Cooperation Process, and Asia Cooperation Dialogue.
Before handing it over this year, we performed our three-year long chairmanship of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) with the goal of revitalizing the outdated structure of the organization. Our chairmanship had an impact, and we dynamized the OIC. To name a few results of our chairmanship, we developed the Islamic Development Fund, the Center for Police Cooperation, the Contact Group of Friends of Mediation, the Women Consultative Council, and the Istanbul Arbitration Center. Regarding the Palestine cause and attacks on Jerusalem, we convened two Extraordinary OIC
“In a geography surrounded by warfare, turmoil, proxy wars, sanctions, and unbridled ambitions, is there any other democracy that has managed to become one of the top-20 global economies, all thanks to her own efforts and assets?”
Summits and three Extraordinary OIC Executive Committee meetings at foreign minister level. With these meetings, we enabled the Islamic world to speak with one voice. We defended the rights of Muslims worldwide, just as we did after the attacks on mosques in New Zealand.
Turkish diplomacy is also highly active in the development of our foreign economic and commercial relations. The amount of FDI, which was USD14.6 billion from 1984 to 2002, reached USD210 billion from 2003 to 2019. We concluded or are in negotiations for free trade and preferential trade agreements with many countries.
Turkey’s interests at home and abroad require working efficiently and in a focused manner. We introduced a “3+2” principle of effectiveness to diplomacy. We strive for effectiveness at the local, regional, and global levels, plus, on the ground and at the table.
In a geography surrounded by warfare, turmoil, proxy wars, sanctions, and unbridled ambitions, is there any other democracy that has managed to become one of the top-20 global economies, all thanks to her own efforts and assets? Can anyone imagine achieving this without being active both on the ground and at the table? This is our story, and our foreign policy reflects our very own story.
Turkey is a member of NATO and the Council of Europe. We are a part of the European legal and security system. We are both the west and the east, the north and the south. Our state and nation stand tall and strong as the guarantor of regional peace and prosperity. ✖
*Sourced from the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
against remarkable odds, arose from the crucible of war. And while it long implemented founder Atatürk’s principle of peace at home and peace in the world, the turbulent reality of regional politics and multi-dimensional conflicts has presaged a greater role for the military in the 21st century.
THE TURKISH REPUBLIC, THE POWER OF PROXY
For almost a decade, Turkey has been actively embroiled in the horror across its Syrian border, a war indirectly fought by the world’s major powers. Roughly 3 million Syrian refugees have escaped to Turkey since the conflict. Meanwhile, traffic in the opposite direction has been both humanitarian and military, as Turkey opposes the forces of President Assad and battles terrorist groups with their own agenda on Turkish soil.
GREECE AND THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN
Turkey, like Greece, a NATO member since 1952, has seen perennial friction with its western neighbor. Divided Cyprus aside, the pilots of both air forces have regularly buzzed each other for years. Most recently, Greece seized a Tanzanian-flagged ship bound for Libya bearing materials used in the production of explosives that had been loaded in the Turkish ports of Mersin and Iskenderun. And here we have a second proxy war, this time on African soil, pertaining to Turkey’s status in the eastern Mediterranean.
The civil war plaguing Libya since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 features one bloc comprising Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and Israel backing General Khalifa Haftar, who seeks to overthrow the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA). The other bloc comprises Turkey and Qatar. On May 18, 2019, Turkish President Recep Tayyıp Erdoğan declared utmost support for the Tripoli-based Islamist administration of Fayez al-Sarraj. No hollow words, as on May 18 Turkey sent a shipment of weapons and armored vehicles to Islamist militias fighting the Libyan National Army (LNA). This continues to cause shock waves in neighboring Egypt, whose government is also at odds with Ankara’s foreign policy. In brief, Greece argues that international waters by Libya are its own territory, which Ankara seeks to counterbalance by a foothold in that country. Turkey’s concern is to avoid curbed regional authority notably related to the EU-recognized state of Cyprus. It also explains Ankara’s recent EU-related dispute due to Turkey’s hydrocarbon exploration off the coast of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which the EU does not recognize.
THE MARCH FOR SELF-SUFFICIENCY
The military industrial complex is a vital part of Turkey’s broader ambitions for 2023, the republic’s centenary, and ambitions to rank among the world’s top-10 economies. While on opposing sides in the Syrian conflict, in July realpolitik led to Turkey’s receipt of the Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile system. Washington’s consequent suspension of Turkey’s participation in the F35 project underscored Ankara’s determination for weapons self-sufficiency. Indeed, Turkey is increasingly a military producer in its own right, and according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute data (SIPRI) data, export units of 244 in 2017 were up more than threefold since 2010.
A long and growing array of indigenous weaponry and equipment, to name but a few, includes the Bayraktar TB2 drone, in service since 2014 notably in Syria; the T-155 Fırtına, a self-propelled howitzer with a striking distance of 40km and employed in 2017’s Operation Olive Branch; and the T-129 ATAK helicopter and T-122 Multiple Barrel Rocket Launcher (MRBL). In a concerted effort, then, local public and private institutions in the military ecosystem such as Turkish Aerospace Industries and Roketsan continue to develop local content befitting Turkish aspirations on land, air, and sea. ✖