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Begin New Search Political Geography Turkey Content Type Journal Article Publication Year within 25 Years

551. The Dynamics of Turkish-Israeli Relations

Author:
Onur Gökçe
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
Institution:
Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:
This article examines Turkish-Israeli relations from 1948 to 2012 in light of domestic and international events that have impacted the two countries throughout the years. The article examines each country’s threat perceptions, which emanate from developments in the Middle East. The author points out commonalities and confrontations between the two countries, and discusses how the latter can be avoided. The article explores how to improve relations in view of the rapid changes occurring in the region, and discusses how the two countries are positioning themselves in the current restructuring of the Middle East and emerging new power balances, some of which are created by these two major regional players themselves.
Topic:
Bilateral Relations, Arab Spring, Alliance, Strategic Interests, and Confrontation
Political Geography:
Turkey, Middle East, and Israel

552. China Reaches Turkey? Radio Peking’s Turkish Language Broadcasts During the Cold War

Author:
Çağdas Üngör
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
Institution:
Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:
A young socialist regime with few diplomatic ties in the 1950s and 1960s, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) made significant attempts to reach foreign audiences through the use of mass media. Shortwave broadcasting was a particularly significant means of disseminating the PRC’s worldview abroad. Radio Peking’s Turkish language section, which was established in 1957 along with Arabic and Persian broadcasts, signaled China’s desire to reach countries in the Middle East. Predating official Sino-Turkish ties and providing a direct cultural link between China and Turkey at a time when few such channels existed, Radio Peking’s Turkish language broadcasts should be regarded as a significant aspect of Sino-Turkish relations during the Cold War years. Based on recently available Chinese language sources, as well as interviews with retired staff, this article examines Radio Peking’s Turkish language section with regard to its organization, program content and audience from 1957 to 1976. It is significant that the PRC regime continued its Turkish language broadcasts amidst various challenges, such as administrative instability, lack of trained personnel, poor technical equipment and unsatisfactory audience numbers.
Topic:
Cold War, Diplomacy, Bilateral Relations, and Radio
Political Geography:
China and Turkey

553. The Transatlantic Relationship in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities

Author:
Charles King Mallory
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
Institution:
Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:
When one has the opportunity to visit the heart of Anatolia, it is often an eye-opener. While we may read about developments in Turkey, it is quite different to absorb with all of your senses the numerous signs of a flourishing, vibrant, growing, modernizing Democracy. As such, Turkey is more important to U.S. foreign and security policy than ever before. Turkey can act as a strategic bridge along multiple azimuths. Turkey can also become a greater stakeholder and can act as a stabilizer, persuader, facilitator, mediator, as well as an example, as the global community struggles to cope with the challenges and opportunities presented by the new, emerging post-Cold-War strategic landscape. In this article I will touch on three topics: First, I will offer a brief assessment of where Turkey’s bilateral relations with the European Union and the United States stand from a U.S. point of view; next, I will describe three major strategic challenges that I believe Turkey, the European Union and the United States face in the Greater Middle East; and finally, I will attempt to analyze where the opportunities for and challenges to cooperation between Turkey, the European Union and the United States lie, given where bilateral relations stand and the challenges facing them.
Topic:
International Relations, NATO, Bilateral Relations, European Union, and Transatlantic Relations
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, Middle East, and United States of America

554. Area and International Studies in Turkey: The Case of the United States

Author:
Ilter Turan
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
Institution:
Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:
Area studies in the international relations discipline have evolved in response to specific needs of countries and particular conditions of the world affairs at a given time. This article addresses a set of conditions and needs that influenced the development of area studies in international relations with a focus on the emergence and growth of studies on the United States in Turkey. Accordingly, it is argued that Turkey has historically conceptualized external relations as state-to-state relations and not prioritized initially a research program on area studies. However, the shift from import substitution to export-led growth and the end of the Cold War created an environment in which Turkey’s needs to research about other societies have intensified. This has led to the establishment of research programs and centers at universities as well as the opening of think tanks, some funded by the public, others privately. In light of the assessment of the growth of these research and teaching institutions focusing on the United States, it is concluded that American studies are less developed than what might be expected given Turkey’s close relationship with the United States. Some explanations are also offered for such an observation.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Research, Think Tanks, and Area Studies
Political Geography:
Turkey and United States of America

555. Is the Twin Deficits Hypothesis Valid in the case of Turkey?

Author:
Fuat Sekmen and Unsal Ozan Kahraman
Publication Date:
12-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bilgi
Institution:
Sakarya University (SAU)
Abstract:
This study deals with the relationship between the current account deficit and the budget deficit in Turkey. Artificial Neural Networks are employed to investigate this relationship. According to the results of the application the twin deficits hypothesis which indicates a positive correlation between the two deficits isn’t valid in Turkey. As this paper tries to analyze the factors accounting for the absence of this kind of correlation, it develops a flexible understanding which doesn’t refuse a hypothesis or a theory (the twin deficits hypothesis) completely, on the contrary, emphasizes the importance of investigating the conditions in which a hypothesis, theory or a model is valid.
Topic:
Economics, Budget, Finance, and Deficit
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, and Asia

556. Türkiye'nin Ortadoğu Politikası

Author:
Kemal İnat
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Turkish foreign policy toward the Middle East has confronted with more and novel security challenges in 2012. The problematic issues related to Arab revolutions of 2011 have already had negative repercussions for Ankara. As a result of diverging policy choices toward the Arab revolutions, these conflicting issues caused more strained relations between Turkey and its neighbors in the region. Regional actors divided over how to respond to political deadlocks in the Middle East. While Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have sided together, Iran, Syria and the central government of Iraq have made their policies jointly. This very division between the regional actors has increased the security risks within the Middle East. These two camps have particularly conflicting policy agendas and as a result, they have become part of a “proxy war” in Syria which constitutes the biggest security threat to the whole region. Despite the deteriorating situation in Syria and its own tense political environment domestically, Turkey, has continued to strengthen its economic relations with the Middle Eastern capitals except Damascus. It was partly a result of this policy that Turkey's export toward the Middle East increased significantly.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, Economics, Environment, and Government
Political Geography:
Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Middle East, Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Damascus, and Ankara

557. Filistin 2012

Author:
M. Cüneyt Özşahin
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Fundamental issues such as the conflict between Hamas and Israel and the rift between Hamas and Fatah, shaped the Palestinian politics in 2012 as in previous years. Israel opted for military intervention against Hamas once more with the Operation Pillar of Defense. The outcome of negotiations that took place throughout 2012 between Hamas and Fatah over the disagreements between the two sides was far from being satisfactory. The impact of Arab Spring, on the other hand, opened new avenues for a set of new developments in Palestinian politics. Egypt, Turkey and Qatar have formed a new alliance as supportive forces in both Palestinian domestic and foreign policy. In addition to all these, the Palestinian authority's international attempts through United Nations started with the UNESCO membership in 2011 and ended up with obtaining the UN observatory non-membership status in 2012. It was underlined that upgrade in Palestinian UN status would open new avenues for Israel-Palestine relations in the long run. Apart from all these, Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails protested the severe prison conditions by hunger strikes.
Topic:
Politics
Political Geography:
Turkey, Israel, Egypt, and Qatar

558. Lübnan 2012

Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
In 2012, Lebanon has been visibly affected by the ongoing crisis and civil war in Syria. The war in Syria has severely contributed to the escalation of tension in the country and had detrimental impact upon the sectarian divide, elevating the risk of massive clashes. As a result, some sporadic conflicts took place in different places in Lebanon, raising the tension. In addition, Hezbollah has become more powerful and influential in the political scene; this attracted greater attention from the domestic and international actors. The bilateral relations between Turkey and Lebanon in 2012 have remained low profile, being limited to the concerns over the Syrian crisis. Turkey has attempted to take measures to ensure that the crisis in Syria would not have spillover effect in Lebanon; however, these attempts have barely worked.
Political Geography:
Turkey, Lebanon, and Syria

559. İsrail 2012

Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
The year 2012 was a critical year for Israel because of the political change in Egypt. Israeli relations with Turkey were also affected as the tension experienced in the region on social change shaken trust among neighbors. Tel Aviv holds that the uprisings in the Arab world signal continuous collapse of authoritarian regimes and thus inevitably pave the way for the rise of Islamic movements. Since the beginning of the uprisings in the Middle East, Israeli decision-makers remained on alert. Israel was directed to find new actors to resolve its loneliness in the region. These actors later appeared as Greece, Cyprus, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Their common feature is that all of these countries' relations with Turkey are somehow problematic. For Israel developing relationships with these countries also means cornering Turkey. On the other hand, there were also differences of opinion between the U.S. and Israel emerged in 2012 that should be noted. Indeed, 2012 saw that the seemingly unshakable alliance between the U.S. and Israel could in fact be in trouble following the two's differing responses to Iran's nuclear power ambitions. The latter issue showed that profound differences of opinion may well surface in the near future.
Political Geography:
Iran, Turkey, Middle East, Greece, Azerbaijan, Egypt, and Cyprus

560. Suudi Arabistan 2012

Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
The wave of change of the Arab Spring, penetrating almost the entire Arab geography in 2011, has continued to be the main agenda of international relations of the region in 2012 as well. While Saudi Arabia, as a crucial regional actor, generally has maintained its opposite stance against the Arab Uprisings, it has had different position on the Syrian crisis and become the principle player due to its policy towards civil war in this country. On the other hand, the Saudi government has pursued a more active foreign policy orientation due to vulnerability of its regime's security and stability at home and its weakening influence in the region that the Arab Spring brought about. Particularly, deprived of a powerful Arab ally owing to Arab Spring, Saudi Arabia has attempted to turn the Gulf Cooperation Council into the “Gulf Union” and to increase the members of the organization. At the same time, pursuing containment policy against Iran, Saudi Arabia has intensified its strategic cooperation with Turkey in military, economic and political areas.
Political Geography:
Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Syria