The Prospect for Turkish Foreign Policy in Africa Under AK Party Governments

Abstract

The AK party government coming to the power at the beginning of 2000s has drastically changed the main orientation of Turkish foreign policy. Immediately after the Cold War Turkey followed a foreign policy within the trajectory Western Alliance, but Turkey developed a private concern Ottoman-remnant territory excluding this traditional foreign policy. This assertive and ambitious policy has been called as Neo-Ottomanism by academic circle influenced from the Western literature. As a part of this territory Africa continent has commonly shared culture, history and religion with Turkey. From this perspective, Turkey’s existence in Africa was perceived different form the colonialist and imperialist West in consequence of Turkish people establishing relations on the equal basis and mutual gain (win-win) principles. In this respect, this different stance of Turkey in Africa threaten the Western imperialism in continent. In this context, this study aims to focus on the changing foreign policy dynamics of Turkey together with the Turkey-Africa relations in recent two decades.