Turkey's Neutrality

August 15, 2024

Turkey is one of the world's fastest-growing economies and punches above its weight geopolitically. It has been secular, industrialized, and “Westernized” since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. Turkey straddles Europe and Asia and maintains good relationships with most nations, including arch-enemies such as Russia and Ukraine or Israel and Palestinians. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is an authoritarian-style leader who has been accused of democratic backsliding but is not a dictator. He is an astute businessman and an adept diplomat. In terms of foreign affairs, he has few peers and steers his ship of state through roiling waters in treacherous regions, from Eastern Europe to the Balkans, the Middle East, Central Asia, the Black Sea, and the Caucasus. Even so, Turkey is underrated as a global player: It is a ranking member of the United Nations, has acted as an intermediary in major disputes, has NATO’s second-largest military, and is the world’s largest refugee host. “Turkish neutrality” helps stabilize an unruly world and is “based on balancing three points of geopolitical confrontation – the West, Russia, and China,” Kyiv-based analyst Aleksey Kushch explained to Al Jazeera.