Is Turkey leaving the West? The Islamist challenge to Turkey's Western orientation

Turkey has been considered as an ally of the West since its foundation in 1923. In its traditional Western orientation, Ankara has been a crucial ally for both Europe and the United States; from being one of the founding members of the Council of Europe, NATO's southern flank since 1952 to participating many joint military operations, as well as its participation to Afghanistan, War on Terror and Iraq. Furthermore, Turkish public was enthusiastic about supporting the European Union (EU) membership of Turkey and regarded the United States as a benign partner in foreign relations. Yet today, polls indicate a significant drop in public's pro-Western and pro-American sentiments, Turkey's EU membership process is in stagnation and foreign relations with the Middle East has warmed considerably since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002. This study looks at the Turkish ruling party's foreign policy agenda to explore whether the recent changes in Turkish foreign and defense policies represent a strategic shift involving new interests and perceived threats to them; in order to help my reader to understand the seriousness of this apparent redirection of Ankara's foreign policies, including whether it is caused by the neo-Ottomanist agenda of the AKP. The study concludes that although both the AKP's pragmatic and populist approach and its argument of reshaping the Turkish foreign policy due to change in the regional dynamics after the Cold War have an impact on the shift in Turkey's foreign policy parameters, the change in Turkey's foreign policies lies mainly in the ruling party's ideological commitment to Neo-Ottomanism.