Travelling in Turkey is a deep immersion in Greek and Roman Empire culture and their extended ruins and in Alexander the Great fights remembering with the immense Persian Empire. People feel also today these memories of so important civilisations, notwithstanding Islamic influence destructive of the past heritage and these remain the roots of their high dignity. In the contemporary international landscape, few actors embody the concept of a “hinge power” as completely as Turkey. Situated at the morphological, cultural and political intersection of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, Ankara has systematically transformed its geographic vulnerability into an extraordinary strategic lever. Under the long-standing leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the country has progressively abandoned its traditional role as a passive eastern bastion of NATO to become the driver of a multidimensional, assertive, and fiercely autonomous foreign policy. This strategy has its roots in an imperial heritage, like the policy of Spain, like the policy of Austria/Hungary in Central Europe.The core of this strategy, often described as “neo-Ottoman” or driven by a quest for strategic autonomy, lies in its refusal to commit to a single camp. Turkey no longer views the world through rigid bloc alignment; instead, it manages a dynamic portfolio of shifting, often contradictory partnerships.Turkey’s traditional and calculated ambiguity emerges clearly when analyzing its three main vectors of foreign policy:
The Euro-Atlantic Pillar: Despite periodic friction with Washington and the de facto freezing of its European Union accession process, Turkey remains an irreplaceable member of NATO. Its exclusive control over the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits (governed by the Montreux Convention) combined with the alliance’s second-largest standing army grants Ankara an informal veto over Euro-Atlantic security dynamics.
Competitive Pragmatism with Russia: The relationship between Moscow and Ankara is a uniquely hybrid model. The two nations cooperate deeply on construction industry, energy infrastructure (such as the TurkStream pipeline and the Akkuyu nuclear plant) and tourism. Simultaneously, they engage in proxy conflicts in Syria, Libya, and the South Caucasus, and maintain opposing stances on Ukraine—where Ankara supplies drones to Kyiv while refusing to join Western sanctions against the Kremlin.
Middle Eastern and Global Projection: Turkey positions itself as a patron of Sunni Muslim causes and an indispensable regional mediator, here conflicting with Saudi Arabia ambitions. Ankara has capitalized on shifting dynamics in the Middle East to anchor itself as an essential factor for de-escalation, while rapidly expanding its diplomatic, commercial, and defense footprint across Africa and the Turkic republics of Central Asia.
Turkish geopolitics is heavily reinforced by a geoeconomic component. Recognizing that global logistics corridors are the new arenas of geopolitical competition, Ankara is investing heavily in transit infrastructure. Turkey is a leading proponent of the Middle Corridor, a multimodal rail and maritime network designed to connect China to Europe via the Caspian Sea and Azerbaijan, bypassing Russia. Furthermore, Turkey serves as a critical energy hub for Europe, funneling Azerbaijani gas and Middle Eastern crude, thereby offering an alternative to more volatile maritime routes like the Red Sea.
The Domestic Dilemma: Turkey’s assertive global power projection must constantly contend with a fragile domestic economy, which has suffered from years of high inflation and remains heavily dependent on attracting foreign capital.Turkey serves as a blueprint for how a middle power, backed by a robust indigenous defense industry (headlined by its globally sought-after drone technology) and a highly transactional leadership style, can maximize its influence in a fragmented, multipolar world. The inherent risk lies in strategic overextension; maintaining a perfect equilibrium between Washington, Moscow, and regional rivals requires a flawless balancing act. However, as long as the global order remains fluid, Ankara’s ability to make itself indispensable to all sides guarantees its seat at the table where the new international balance is being negotiated.
