Analysis Of Turkish Perceptions Through Turkish-Chinese Diplomatic And Economic Relations

The world is waking up to the fact that China has been becoming a new economic superpower throughout the world.Since almost one and a half decades, China has transformed itself from a dormant, introspective giant into a dynamic powerhouse of major signifance to the world economy. It currently provides the mere major, rapidly growing economy in an otherwise recession-hit world. The strategic centre of gravity is also shifting towards China, which brings about fundamental changes in traditional balance-of-power relations. Meanwhile, China has emerged as the rising star in both political and economical terms. In ancient times, China was quite a strong country that its people became accustomed to thinking of their country as the Middle Kingdom or Zhongguo. By all standarts, it is indeed a nation of gigantic proportions and has, once again, become the focus of world-wide attention due to its significant impact on the global economy and balance-of-power strategies.As a Turkish citizen, I have decided to take Turkey as case study since Turkish perceptions on China have been rather interesting for me. Turkey and China, situated at opposing ends of Asia, but linked by the vast Eurasian area share a long past, cemented by turning of centuries and have influenced each other throughout history. To understand the Turkish perceptions better, I have studied Sino-Turkish history of mutual relations as "past defines the future". I focused on economy and politics as I believe that these two can not be seperated from each other. Therefore, I have mainly examined Turkish perceptions through Turkey and China’s diplomatic and economic relations since it appeared to me that mutual relations have been the most important factor that have shaped the Turkish perceptions. Meanwhile, interviews, columns, articles, books, newspapers, conferences, speeches have helped me to analyze the bilateral relations more specifically. I have observed that for Turkey; China is quite an important country to promote Turkey’s economic and political interests. The fact that China is a member of the United Nations Security Council leads Turkey consider that China could support Turkey in quite a number of policies in international area. Another main reason for Turkey’s interest in China is; Turkey has had a major expectation to get a market share from a huge country as China that is rapidly developing. Nevertheless, Turkey has faced unexpected difficulties through its relations with China in last two decades mainly due to the different foreign policies that were followed by Turkey and China, growing trade deficit(unbalanced trade between Turkey and China), and the issue of Eastern Turkistan. However,all these difficulties have not changed Turkey’s main perceptions on China. My findings suggest that Turkey still regards China and China’s rise as a chance. Unlike some scholars, I personally assume that if Turkey and China could develop an appropriate policy to overcome the existing issues in a positive manner, it can be possible for Turkish-Chinese relations to reach to the level of strategic partnership. Based on these considerations, I can claim that for Turkey, China is a potential partner.