This policy outlook examines how post-election Turkish foreign policy will chart its course across regional and global flashpoints. The paper will also review the core themes defining Türkiye’s international relations, exploring key cooperation, conflict, and mediation areas.
In the last two decades, Turkish foreign policy has pursued a growingly proactive foreign policy in line with the geo-political transformations and challenges in the world. As a member of NATO, Türkiye has embarked on a journey spanning over seventy years, weaving mutually profitable relationships with the Western World. In the past two decades, Ankara has opened up to its neighbouring countries, balancing its relations as best as possible to leverage its crucial geopolitical position. Given these dynamics, the 2023 Turkish Presidential elections captivated both Western and regional commentators, who rushed to foresee how the result of these elections could shape Ankara’s foreign policy, specifically in dossiers such as Syria, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, NATO, and the EU. The candidates’ divergent foreign policy visions fuelled speculations that a change is expected in Ankara’s orientations in the event of the opposition’s victory. Consequently, analyses of the 2023 election’s impact on foreign policy have become salient, particularly within the Western media and think tank circles.
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