Turkish foreign policy and the energy bonanza in the Eastern Mediterranean

Abstract

This article examines the impacts on Turkish foreign policy of the recent discovery of energy deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean. Cyprus-dominated orientation of Turkish foreign policy in the Eastern Mediterranean has begun to change character as political and economic balances in the region have started to shift. While the discoveries of energy resources may have seemed to offer great opportunities at first, they have actually become a source of increasing contention due to existing unresolved conflicts and political disputes in the region. Turkey has found it especially difficult to keep up with the rapidly changing state of regional affairs as constraints on its technological capacity and political problems with old partners have come to weigh it down. In the end, the reactive nature of Turkey’s approach to the developments in the region proved to have limited effect, and a new status quo is escaping its reach.