View article

I looked elsewhere at the structural determinants of Turkish foreign policy, 1 which included the factors that have traditionally influenced and shaped the foreign policy of Turkey from imperial times, through the inter-war years with Atatiirk, to the present-day Republic. Thanks to these structural determinants and their strong influence upon Turkey, it has been able to display a remarkable degree of continuity in its foreign policy, in contrast to frequent internal changes. It is, to a large extent, due to these factors that Turkish foreign policy has been praised for its high degree of rationality, sense of responsibility, long term perspective, and'realism found in few developing nations and far from universal even among the democracies of the West'. 2

Yet, there are other factors that have affected Turkish foreign policy and its daily happenings. These conjunctural factors, the result of international and domestic changes over the …