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Turkey's relations with Syria have experienced two distinct periods under the AK Parti governments. While relations between Turkey and Syria were on a tense level in the 1990s due to disagreements over the distribution of Euphrates-Tigris waters and Syrian support for the PKK terrorist organization, normalization began as a result of the Adana Memorandum signed between the two countries. After normalization, there was increased cooperation in the early periods of the AK Party governments. However, with the start of the civil war, the situation changed, and it was seen that Syria had become a direct threat to Turkey. The Neoclassical Realist Theory offers a comparative analysis of foreign policy in which internal and external factors are assessed together. In this context, the study aims to compare the effects of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's leadership and the restrictive or permissive strategic environment of the international-regional system on Turkey's foreign policy towards Syria from 2002 to 2014. Findings of the research show that leadership can be effective in foreign policy to the extent allowed by the systemic strategic environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A main objective of this article is to examine the underlying reasons behind the collapse of the reunification talks on Cyprus aimed at a federal model. Another aim of the article is to analyze Türkiye’s assertive policy in the Eastern Mediterranean. A major argument is that the disruption of the balance of power with respect to the Cyprus problem in favor of the Greek Cypriots after 2004 and the lack of a shared Cypriot identity were fundamental causes of the failure of the talks. The study also contends that the emergence of a siege mentality after the July 2016 coup plot in Türkiye, together with its economic and military strengthening, the rise of multi-polarity in international politics, and diminishing EU political sway in the country, incentivized Türkiye to pursue an active foreign policy agenda in the Eastern Mediterranean. This study concludes that the failure of long-standing negotiations to reach a federal settlement on the island and the comfortable position obtained by the Greek Cypriot Administration (GCA) in the negotiations vis-à-vis the Turkish side following the accession to the EU together with Türkiye’s nationalist posture after 2016 and the deepening of the identity dilemma among the Greek and Turkish Cypriots over the course of time induced Türkiye to shelve a federal solution to the Cyprus issue and return to a pre-2002 two-state solution. The article also concludes that Türkiye was further prompted to take an independent course in the Eastern Mediterranean by the combination of a number of factors: the rapprochement between the AKP Government and nationalist elements in the country after the 2016 coup plot, the militarization of its foreign policy, Türkiye’s perception that the West was in decline, the decreased credibility and thus leverage over Türkiye of EU political conditionality, Brussels’ shortcomings regarding a common security and foreign policy and the rise in Türkiye’s military and economic capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mediterranean, in addition to its geostrategic importance throughout history, is witnessing a power struggle in which regional and global actors involved over the hydrocarbon resources discovered in the region in recent years. The Mediterranean is an important region for European security. On the other hand, Turkey, which maintains its relations with the European Union (EU) at the stage of full membership negotiations, is also a Mediterranean country in historical and geographical terms. The main objective of this study is to put forward the position of the Mediterranean as a region in Turkish foreign policy and to understand how Turkish foreign policy has conceptualized the Mediterranean and whether or not Turkish foreign policy has built the Mediterranean as a different region. In this study, as one of the factors affecting the approach of Turkish foreign policy towards the Mediterranean as a whole, Turkey's reaction to the EU's cooperation initiatives towards the Mediterranean is discussed. The article argues that the discomfort and suspicion of presenting the EU's Euro-Mediterranean Partnership initiative as an alternative to Turkey's EU membership is one of the important factors preventing Turkey from developing a systematic and holistic policy towards the Mediterranean. Rather than developing an integrated and institutional Mediterranean policy, Turkey has pursued a foreign policy with a view to contributing to the security and welfare of the region through bilateral relations and multilateral platforms. Due to the recent developments in the region, it is observed that Turkey's focal point is the Eastern Mediterranean rather than the whole of Mediterranean basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problems that Turkey has been experiencing in both domestic and foreign policy since 2016 have also been reflected in its foreign relations with the U.S., one of its NATO allies, and Ankara directly connected with Washington in many issues that concern its own interests. In this context, the U.S. has not refrained from intervening in issues that Turkey regards as its internal security issue; also it gave support to the opponents of Turkey by remaining silent about some issues. In the last five years, the relations between the U.S. and Turkey have mostly progressed in a heavy atmosphere even though they have entered into a detente era in some periods of presidencies of Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Thus, it is possible to point out that the relations have been conducted in an unstable manner between two sides. In the study, it was emphasized on the issues related to Turkish foreign policy from the beginning of the period of former US President Trump to the current President Biden; in this context, it was touched on Turkey's act by prioritizing its rational interests and national security priorities, use of military power against the elements of threats and shape of foreign policy within the framework of a neo-realist concept about serious issues such as the S-400 missile defense system, CAATSA sanctions, PKK/PYD issue, Gülen case and Priest Brunson issue. As a method, literature review was used and statements, reports, news and articles related to the subject were included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]