JEOPOLİTİK STRATEJİ

Turkey
has territories on two continents; Europe and Asia,
which makes it possible to approach Turkey from the
Eurasian perspective. It stands on the intersection
of three continents; Europe, Asia and Africa. It
neighbors three regions; Middle East, Balkans,
Caucasus.

“Turkey, a post-imperial state still in the
process of redefining its identity, is pulled in
three directions: the modernists would like to
see it become a European state and thus look
to the west; the Islamists lean in the direction
of the Middle East and a Muslim community
and thus look to the south; and the historically
minded nationalists see in the Turkic peoples of
the Caspian Sea basin and Central Asia a new
mission for a regionally dominant Turkey and
thus look eastward. Each of these perspectives
posits a different strategic axis, and the clash
between them introduces for the first time
since the Kemalist revolution a measure of
uncertainty regarding Turkey’s regional role.
Moreover, Turkey itself could become at least a
partial victim of the region’s

In that sense,
Turkey is not a global actor, but a regional one, or
as Brzezinski defines it a geopolitical pivot. It is also
not a great power, but a medium one. Its status is
defined by its geographical position and historical
and cultural ties that are attached to this position.

Such Strategic Medium Powers (SMP) can
also be described as regional powers. Their
ability to influence events does not allow
them to resist major powers successfully or to
engage in armed conflicts with them. SMPs
under threat from a major power either
resort to the balance of power
by playing one major power against another
or seek protection within an alliance. This
choice is not always easy. The balance of
power can shift. or, after joining an alliance,
the SMP can find itself reduced to being a
satellite of the major power of that alliance.
Sometimes it is not within an SMPs ability to
exercise these choices because of the nature
of the international system at that particular
time or because of the circumstances of that
SMP within the international system. In
a rigid bipolar system an SMPis very likely
to be forced to adhere to one of the two
camps, especially it its geostrategic location
is considered

Turkey stabilizes the Black Sea region,
controls access from it to the Mediterranean
Sea, balances Russia in the Caucasus,
still offers an antidote to Muslim
fundamentalism, and serves as the southern
anchor for NATO. A destabilized Turkey
would be likely to unleash more violence in
the southern Balkans, while facilitating the
reimposition of Russian control over the
newly independent states of the Caucasus
(Brzezinski, 1997b: 41

The most
remarkable geocultural initiative of Turkey in the postCold War period was the establishment of Turkish
Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) in
1992 as “an implementing intermediary of Turkish
foreign policy, particularly in the countries with
whom we have shared values, as well as in many other
areas and countries.”

List of TIKA Coordination Offices
Afghanistan (3), Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan,
Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Cameroon, Chad, Colombia, Comoros,
Croatia, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia,
Guinea, Hungary, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan,
Kenya, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon,
Libya, Macedonia , Mexico , Moldova ,
Mongolia , Montenegro, Mozambique,
Myanmar, Namibia, Niger, Pakistan (2)
,Palestine Philippines, Romania, Senegal,
Serbia, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan
,Sudan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus, Turkmenistan,
Uganda, Ukraine (2), Uzbekistan, Yemen

The “chessboard” Brzezinski refers to in his analysis, is Eurasia itself. According to Brzezinski, Eurasia is “the chessboard on which the struggle for global primacy continues to be played” and
“a power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world’s three most advanced and economically
productive regions. […] control over Eurasia would almost automatically entail Africa’s subordination,
rendering the Western Hemisphere and Oceania geopolitically peripheral to the world’s central continent.”
(Brzezinski, 1997b: 31)

The theory that the state could control the human and physical resources of the Eurasion landmass
between Germany and central Siberia would be in a position to rule the world. The Heartland Theory
was developed by British geographer Sir Halford J. Mackinder in his paper “The Geographical Pivot
of History” (1904) and his best known work Democratic Ideals and Reality: A Study in the Politics of
Reconstruction (1919). The heartland theory emerged from Mackinder’s detailed study of the global
relationship between land and sea power

Like the other regions Central Asia does not have clear-cut borders. In the narrow and the most
common sense Central Asia refers to the five former Soviet Republics; Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan

The correct choice is D.

The correct choice is B.

The correct choice is A.

The correct choice is C.

The correct choice is C.

The correct choice is C.

The correct choice is B.

The correct choice is E.

The correct choice is E.

The correct choice is B.