The NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius has ended. Do Turkey\u2019s intra-NATO maneuvers signal a change or a fine-tuning of Ankara\u2019s post-election foreign policy course? According to Dr. Kaan Kutlu Ata\u00e7, there is no shift in axis or geopolitical reason for it. Stating that Turkey has two main agendas focused on economy and defense, Ata\u00e7 emphasizes that the maneuvers, negotiations and steps in foreign policy should be viewed from this perspective.<\/p>\n
The NATO summit in Vilnius is the second meeting held in the shadow of the Russia-Ukraine war. Having been on its agenda since the war, NATO\u2019s enlargement policy is noteworthy as a bargaining chip that Ankara uses against its Western allies.<\/p>\n
At the Spain Summit, Ankara put forward certain demands in exchange for Finland and Sweden\u2019s membership, and although it gave its approval to Finland, it kept the Sweden card until this summit. In Vilnius, the new foreign affairs team re-set the bargaining table by bringing up the back-burner issue of \u201copening Turkey\u2019s path to the European Union (EU)\u201d.<\/p>\n
While lifting sanctions on the defense industry, paving the way for the sale of F-16s, and Sweden\u2019s consideration of Ankara\u2019s sensitivities in the fight against terrorism were the most prominent demands, according to Dr. Kaan Kutlu Ata\u00e7, \u201cthe economic pendulum is the most important parameter for Ankara in foreign policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnkara is maximalist in negotiations\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Commenting on the NATO summit to Harici, Dr. Kaan Kutlu Ata\u00e7, a lecturer at Mersin University, shares the view that the sometimes hardening or softening relations between Turkey and the West cannot be discussed in the brackets of \u201caxis shift\u201d. According to Ata\u00e7, \u201cthe typical approach of Turkish foreign policy is maximalist.\u201d<\/p>\n Underlining that \u201cmiddle powers act with a maximalist approach in their foreign policies and aim for the highest benefit,\u201d Ata\u00e7 says, \u201cLifting sanctions is a priority for Turkey.\u201d<\/p>\n Ata\u00e7 assesses that the rapprochement process with Russia after the 2016 coup attempt was also driven by pragmatic priorities and reminds that both countries have deep mutual mistrust.<\/p>\n Ata\u00e7 says that although Turkey and Russia have conflicting interests in the Caucasus, Africa and Libya, these differences do not prevent them from developing deep relations in trade, tourism and energy.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are security-related tensions and mutual concerns,\u201d Ata\u00e7 says, adding that despite these, Ankara and Moscow will continue to develop relations based on pragmatic mutual benefit.<\/p>\n Why is there no axis shift?<\/strong><\/p>\n How will the prioritization of NATO and the EU agenda and Ankara\u2019s desire to open a new page with Western allies affect relations with Moscow? According to Russian statements, there will be no significant change. Indeed, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, \u201cTurkey has obligations to NATO regarding Sweden\u2019s NATO membership,\u201d adding that Moscow is willing to develop relations with Ankara despite differences of opinion.<\/p>\n \u201cHistorically, relations with Russia have always been based on tensions,\u201d said Dr. Kaan Kutlu Ata\u00e7, adding that \u201cTurkey is developing the relations with Moscow that it needs. There are conflicts of interest in Turkey\u2019s relations with Moscow.\u201d<\/p>\n He summarizes the relations between Ankara, Brussels and Moscow as \u201cTurkey has pragmatic relations with Russia, and there is no strategic rupture with NATO.\u201d<\/p>\n Ata\u00e7 justifies why he thinks there is no axis shift as follows: \u201cThere does not seem to be an axis shift in a technical sense. For there to be an axis shift, the importance of the Anatolian peninsula must strategically increase or decrease. On the axis stretching from North Africa to the Baltic, Anatolia is right in the middle. In NATO\u2019s security policies, Anatolia should be one of the thickest links in the chain.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe US is taking Greece to another level\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n According to Prof. Kaan Kutlu Ata\u00e7, Turkey\u2019s desire for the lifting of Western overt and covert sanctions has two goals. The first is to meet the need for modernization in the defense industry. The second is to ensure the flow of Western resources into the blocked financial system.<\/p>\n On the other hand, \u201cthere is a sharp line in Turkey-US relations,\u201d says Ata\u00e7, adding that the US has \u201cshifted security from Ankara to Athens.<\/p>\n Emphasizing that modernization is a priority in Turkey\u2019s defense, Ata\u00e7 says Washington has \u201celevated the Greek army to another level.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe West will not give too much\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cTurkey is looking to get what it can from the West in terms of economy and defense industry,\u201d says Ata\u00e7, noting that there is a bottleneck on financial and monetary issues.<\/p>\n To what extent can Ankara, which focuses on creating a positive agenda with NATO, the US, the EU and the West in general, achieve the desired results?<\/p>\n At this point, Ata\u00e7 says, \u201cIt seems that they will not give too much. Turkey is looking to Arab capital for this. However, Arab capital also has close financial ties with the West,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe US wants to further wear Russia down\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Ukraine\u2019s NATO membership agenda has been postponed indefinitely, but signs of escalating war have raised tensions. Moscow responded harshly to the G7 countries\u2019 pledge of security guarantees for Ukraine and the hot topic of supplying Kiev with fighter jets. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called Western plans to supply Kiev with US-designed fighter jets \u201can extremely dangerous development\u201d and said Moscow sees the F-16 supply as a nuclear threat.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the United States, Russia is an adversary that can be overcome,\u201d Ata\u00e7 said, adding that Washington \u201cwants to further wear Russia down.\u201d<\/p>\n Ata\u00e7 continued:<\/p>\n \u201cCreating an adversary you can overcome… This is how Russia is defined in the strategy. And crisis management is important for managing tensions, so you need to keep that tension with Russia. The West has not technically integrated Moscow into Western institutions, neither during the Cold War nor after the Cold War.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe US is playing this game very hard,\u201d Ata\u00e7 says, emphasizing that the US \u201cneeds the Russian threat\u201d to maintain its domination over Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius has ended. Do Turkey\u2019s intra-NATO maneuvers signal a change or a fine-tuning of Ankara\u2019s post-election foreign policy course? According to Dr. Kaan Kutlu Ata\u00e7, there is no shift in axis or geopolitical reason for it. Stating that Turkey has two main agendas focused on economy and defense, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":2839,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,174],"tags":[1417,503,1453,683,1418,746,1421,1420],"class_list":["post-2838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diplomacy","category-interview","tag-f-16","tag-headline","tag-nato-summit","tag-russia","tag-swedens-nato-membership","tag-ukraine-war","tag-us-turkey-relations","tag-vilnius-summit"],"yoast_head":"\n