Populist is Right Word for Turkey’s Foreign Policy, Expert Says

“Populist is the right word [for Turkey’s emerging foreign policy], more than Eastward or Islamist – they are really conscious of what Turkish opinion polls say,” said Ömer Taşpınar, a Turkey expert at the US National War College, Euroasianet.org reports.

“And when there is such a high level of resentment in the United States against Turkey, this creates problems for the [Turkish] government. Turkey is becoming more democratic, self-confident, but the fact that public opinion does not have a very favorable opinion of the United States is creating a problem for the government.”

Taşpınar identified the failure of Ankara to ratify the US-brokered protocols between Turkey and Armenia as one of the reasons that US policymakers are disillusioned with Turkey. “When the president of the United States invests a lot of political capital in Turkey, and there’s an engagement process, but in return Turkey fails to deliver on Armenia, and then fails to deliver on Iran, there are big question marks in Washington,” he said.

But the same question marks exist in Ankara, he added.

“Why should Turkey always be with the United States when US foreign policy has had major failures?”