Yavuz Tüyloğlu
Insofar as the future of Turkey’s relations with the West is concerned, the analysis of Turkish Development Aid (TDA) offers an uncertain forecast. On the one hand, the AKP has been wrapping its development assistance into anti-Western, anti-colonial rhetoric, especially when addressing the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Yet on the other hand, it has retained Turkey’s observer status in the OECD Development Assistant Committee. This foreign policy practice of keeping feet on both sides of the West-East dichotomy helps the AKP to derive one kind of ‘concrete benefit’ from its ties with the West while seeking others by distancing itself from the West. To some degree, TDA appears to be ‘aimed at fulfilling the function of a mediator between Northern and Southern positions and players by placing itself in neither camp.’ From another angle, it looks like the AKP wants to be in the West to the degree that suits its interests.
Centre for Applied Turkey Studies (CATS), Working Paper Nr. 02, April 2021, 28 pages
doi:10.18449/2021WP04