A Shift of Axis in Turkish Foreign Policy or A Marketing Strategy? Turkey's Uses of Its 'Uniqueness' vis-à-vis the West/Europe.

This article contends that Turkey's predominant geopolitical discourse of promoting its uniqueness in terms of its location, role and identity has been a result of its ontological anxiety over its sense of marginalization within the Western/European community. It argues that Turkey's 'recent' turn to the Middle East as well as the discourses that evoke Turkey's 'bridge' and 'central state' roles in the last decade show continuity in the logic of Turkey's foreign policy practices, rather than an axis shift or a break with the past. The article seeks to contribute to the debates on the shift of axis in Turkish foreign policy and Turkey's recent foreign policy activism in the Middle East by examining how Turkey's traditional goal of 'emerging as a respected member of the European community' as well as the course of its interactions with the West/EC/EU influenced Turkey's foreign practices and the ways Turkey represented its role and identity in time. The present paper also seeks to contribute to the constructivist studies on ontological security, by offering a preliminary conceptual framework in exploring how states may attempt to resolve their ontological anxieties in hierarchical situations through the assertion of their uniqueness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]