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Türkiye

Mosquée bleue (Sultanahmet Camii), Bosphore et côté asiatique, Istanbul, Turquie

Türkiye today evolves very fast, due to the joint influence of external factors and internal dynamics that are sometimes difficult to grasp.

The beginning of negotiations to adhere to the European Union allowed the Turkish government to pursue a series of political reforms in order to conform to the criteria demanded by Copenhagen. After many years of severe structural adjustment the Turkish economy benefits from outstanding growth rates that confirm its status as a promising emerging market. Turkish civil society also seems to acquire and strengthen an autonomous voice in the debates to come.

However, there are many uncertainties that are here to stay. As this process of change is still unfinished, the permanent state of political crisis comes at the expense of economic stability. Institutional models and political culture are undergoing a phase of mutations whose outcomes are difficult to predict. Experiencing a rural exodus and new forms of social mobility, the Turkish population is aware of the important consequences these profound changes have on the social contract and national consensus. On a diplomatic level, Türkiye is oscillating between the ardent European demands, exercises of power that may lead to a loss in sovereignty, and the other tempting alliances that could strengthen its status as a regional power that cannot be ignored.

Far from simplifying the Turkish mosaic, the intensification of its relations with the European Union seems to complicate it: new subject positions emerge that emphasize the need to create new tools of understanding. We must look at contemporary Turkish reality with a new eye in order to spot these new actors, factors of mobilization and lines of cleavage that weigh on Türkiye’s choices.

Dorothée SCHMID

Senior Research Fellow, Head of Ifri’s Türkiye and...

Amr ABDELRAHIM

Research Fellow, Türkiye and Middle East Program

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Adel BAKAWAN

Associate Research Fellow, Türkiye and Middle East...

Galip DALAY

Associate Research Fellow, Türkiye and Middle East Program

...
Elisa DOMINGUES DOS SANTOS

Associate Research Fellow, Sub-Saharan Africa Center and Turkey/Middle East Program

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Renewing the Franco-Turkish dialogue through diverse partnerships ...
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Putting forward high quality information on the shifts and changes taking place in contemporary Türkiye ...
15/11/2023

Since the launch of the Opening Plan to Africa in 2003, Turkey's African policy has spread to the whole of the African continent, where its involvement is distinguished by its scope and diversity.

03/05/2022
By: Jana JABBOUR

After the Arab uprisings, Turkey’s relations with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) broke down along sharp ideological lines. While Riyadh and Abu Dhabi sought to preserve the regional status quo by adopting a counter-revolutionary approach, Turkey emerged as an anti status quo,...

18/11/2021
By: Aris MARGHELIS

In the summer of 2020, the Central and Eastern Mediterranean became the center of unusual tensions between France and Turkey. Given that these tensions were also military, which is uncommon for the two countries, the perception that the French military has of Turkey’s army and its doctrine is...

22/10/2021
By: Antoine MICHON

Since coming into office in 2017, Emmanuel Macron has been the loudest advocate for the development of European ‘strategic autonomy’, which aims at reinforcing the European Union’s geo-strategic independence. Asserting the EU’s role on the international stage, starting with its immediate...

03/09/2021
By: Laura Lale KABIS-KECHRID
Over the past years, the Eastern Mediterranean has become centerstage of an increasingly internationalized and militarized conflict driven by different albeit interlinked issues and an arena for a growing variety of actors to project their geopolitical ambitions.
21
Nov
2023
Tuesday 21 November 2023
from 15:00 to 18:30 - Conférences

The Black Sea has become a battleground in the Russian-Ukrainian war. While Moscow asserts its ambitions for power at sea and on land, Ankara controls maritime access through the strait. Turkey plays the role of mediator to ensure the security of grain and hydrocarbon...

23
Jun
2023
Friday 23 June 2023
from 09:00 to 12:30 - Conférences

After more than 20 years at the helm of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has won a historic third term as President of the Republic, defeating Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the Kemalist party's candidate, with 52% of the vote, despite being backed by an unprecedented coalition of the entire opposition.

13
Jan
2022
Thursday 13 January 2022
at 09:00 - Videoconferences

Since 2014, the number of maritime incidents between Turkey and its Greek and Cypriot neighbors has steadily increased. In 2020, at the height of the crisis, Greece obtained the unconditional support of French President Emmanuel Macron, who sought to portray himself as the defender of European...

25
Oct
2021
Monday 25 October 2021 to Tuesday 26 October 2021
from Monday 25 October 2021 14:00 to Tuesday 26 October 2021 12:30 - Seminars and Round-table Conferences

Since 1983, the QUAD gathers every year, the SWP, RAND Corporation, Chatham House and Ifri. The QUAD was set up during the Euromissile crisis and brings together European and American diplomats, military officers, journalists and research fellow to debate on current geopolitical issues.<...>

06
Nov
2019
Wednesday 06 November 2019 to Thursday 07 November 2019
from Wednesday 6 November 2019 09:00 to Thursday 7 November 2019 14:00 - External Events

In the first of our foreign policy meeting series “Ruptures in the Neighborhood: The Impact of Turkish Foreign Policy in its Neighboring Countries and Beyond,” we will focus on the Turkish foreign policy (TFP) in the Balkans. In line with the overall goal of the series, we will aim to get an...

23
Nov
2017
Thursday 23 November 2017
from 10:00 to 12:00 - Seminars and Round-table Conferences

Since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of the World War I, efforts by both regional or international powers to build a sustainable regional order in the Middle East have failed. While some debate on the best conceivable order for the region, others argue that we should...

17
Mar
2017
Friday 17 March 2017
from 13:00 to 18:00 - Seminars and Round-table Conferences

Since the nuclear agreement was reached in July 2015, Iran has returned to the forefront of international relations. However, the complexity of Iranian society remains hardly understandable for Western observers. At a time when both Iran and the world are opening to each other, in order to...

22/06/2022
By: Dorothée SCHMID, interviewed by Julia Kim for "Middle East Matters" on France24.

The leaders of Saudi Arabia and Turkey are turning the page on years of strained relations, exacerbated by the 2018 assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul. Face-to-face dialogue is the order of the day between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman...