Dangerous neighbourhood: Contemporary issues in Turkey’s foreign relations

Book abstract:

In many ways, Turkish politics is still reeling from the swing towards modernisation, secularisation, and nationalism implemented by the rise of Ataturk in the 1920s. Questions of political corruption, economic ineptitude and human rights still remain at the forefront of the debate over Turkish foreign relations. These are issues which have also compounded the notion of Turkey's twin role, or rather its 'double identity', as a nation state that has always existed between Western and Islamic worlds. This book examines the relationship between Turkish foreign policy and its close geographical neighbours in the Caucasus and the Middle East, but also its relations with the European Union (EU) and the United States.

The work contains a broad introduction to the problem of Turkey's foreign relations, and then eight separate essays, each from a different contributor. The first deals with Turkey and Europe in terms of Human Rights, in particular the question of the Kurdish people and the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), while the second looks at Turkey and Europe in respect of security issues. Essay three turns to Turkey and the Caucasus, and assesses its foreign relations with newly emergent republics like Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, and essay five returns to the specific and always problematic Kurdish question in Turkish politics. In essay six, there is a further examination of what the writer calls 'The Rise and Fall of the PKK'; essay seven evaluates the role of Turkey's new strategic partner, Israel, and essay eight concludes the book by exploring Turkish relations with the US.

The book is aimed at political scientists, foreign policy analysts, and Middle East specialists.

This publication is distributed by the Eurospan Group.

• Primary Source

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