Abstract
The importance of the Eastern Mediterranean for the Turkish state is diachronic. In recent years, however, a renewed interest of Ankara is being recorded as a result of the developments in the energy sphere. This is expressed through various forms of interventionist policy of Turkey in the area. This article examines the reshaping of Turkeys geopolitical dogma and its connection with Turkish perception of the Eastern Mediterranean. It examines the impact of the failed coup attempt in 2016 on the ruling power bloc and its reflections in the Turkish geopolitical doctrine. In this framework the article explores the reinstatement of the need for survival of the state ( devletin bekası ) as a result of the reshaping of the ruling coalition and the legitimisation of the attempt to strengthen the authority of the state. At the same time, the ideological construction of the Eastern Mediterranean is important, as it can reveal the process of construction of security issues or the instrumentalisation of real threats through which geopolitical orientation is reshaped and specific policies are implemented. This study consequently reviews the identification of the Eastern Mediterranean with a wider hostile region and analyses the functioning of the blue homeland concept as a legitimising axis of Turkish politics. The concept of blue homeland is examined in conjunction with internal developments in Turkey and especially the change of balance in the power bloc. Finally, the last part of the article analyses the ideological legitimisation of the blue homeland concept in Turkeys strategy for the Eastern Mediterranean. Through these dynamics, the change in Ankaras perception of the Turkish Cypriot community and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is also identified.
Highlights
The importance of the Eastern Mediterranean for the Turkish state is diachronic
The ideological construction of the Eastern Mediterranean is important, as it can reveal the process of construction of security issues or the instrumentalisation of real threats through which geopolitical orientation is reshaped and specific policies are implemented
“I pledge that we are ready to execute any order so as to protect every inch of the 462-thousand-square km of our blue homeland,”1 — this statement belongs to lieutenant colonel Engin Ağmış, in charge of Gökçeada frigate, in his address to the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, during a ceremony marking the anniversary of the establishment of the Turkish Republic, on 29 October 2019
Summary
The specific concept of “self-protection”, which was further strengthened in Turkish geopolitical doctrine, stressed the trend towards autonomy in regional developments, a tendency that had, in one way or another, pre-existed in the AKP political programme. It stressed the development of initiatives for the creation of all or almost all preconditions for autonomy — for example, the reinforcement of the national defence industry and the promotion of the army as a key axis for the realisation of the country’s foreign policy Whether internal or external, we will deal with
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