Politics at Home, Politics in the World: The Return of the Political in Turkish Foreign Policy

The “political” has been absent from Turkish foreign policy because the main difficulties facing the country were considered almost constitutive elements of Turkish national existence, so that they are kept incurable. This essay includes a brief history of the absence of the political in Turkish foreign policy. Some conservative and dogmatic considerations of limits in political life have been typical obstacles to change. When politicians address the obstacles, they threaten many economic and political interests. A radically different, recent approach in Turkey promotes political action to achieve “zero problems with the neighbors.” While we could previously see the removal of the political from foreign policy in Turkey, now we also can see the clear return of the political.