Turkey Special: FM Davutoglu Sets Out Ankara's Foreign Policy in the "Normalisation of History"

Last week, Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was in the US for discussions with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Davutoglu also delivered a speech at Georgetown University about Ankara's "zero problem with neighbours" strategy.

The Foreign Minister began with the context in which his active foreign policy is embedded. For him, what makes Washington a "unique" global power, compared to its predecessors, is its geographical and historical continuity or, simply put, the process of globalisation.

Therefore, instead of "rule and divide", the U.S. needs allies and reliable partners. One of the biggest allies of the US, for geopolitical and economic reasons, is Ankara due to geopolitical and economic reasons. Turkey is not only a bridge between three continents but also an energy corridor and aneconomic power taking its place in the G-20 as "the first recovering country" after the 2008 economic crisis.

In regional politics, within the contexts of the Middle East, Asia, Russia, the European Union, and the fight against terror, Washington needs Turks as much as Ankara needs Washington. This, Davutoglu underlined, is the significance of the "model partnership" set out by President Obama in his address to the Turkish Parliament in April 2009.

Davutoglu consider history as dynamic and evolutionary, transforming and restoring societies. There are four periods of restoration. The first began as a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, bringing a constitutional monarchy along with the Europeanisation of the Ottoman State. The second was the establishment of the Modern Turkey against the imperial structures of Europe, bringing republicanism and a national identity. The third was after the Second World War with "security-oriented democratisation", bringing multi-party democracy, free-market economy, and membership in NATO.

The last restoration should have been after the collapse of the Cold War with "economic reformation, a political democratisation and a new foreign-policy orientation. Davutoglu continued, "What Turkey needs today was supposed to be done in 1990s." However, this has not been possible due to "the instability deriving from coalition governments, economic instability, and terrorist activities".

Now, Davutoglu asserted, Turkey's ruling AKP is pursuing a more freedom-oriented democracy with strong ties to the EU and NATO, along with economic development: "The new foreign policy we are forming is neither turning its face to East nor shifting paradigms."

Turkey's efforts with regional neighbours are devoted the "restoration of peace, order and stability", Davutoglu says. So, in addition to unprecedented links with Greece, the "pro-active peace policy" has been applied in places such as the Bosnia-Croatia-Serbia triangle, Syria-Israel, Palestine-Israel, Iran, and relations with the 5+1 Powers (US, UK, France, China, Russia, Germany).

This is "the normalization of history" with "regional integration", says Davutoglu, which makes the Turkish foreign policy agenda a "necessity" rather than a "choice". At the end of the day, this "necessity" does not accept "sanctions, isolation, and trade barriers in this region" or a NATO-centered "polarisation", unlike the disruption of the Cold War era.