Turkey’s foreign policy towards the Western Balkans in the Davutoğlu Era

Вопросы национальных и федеративных отношений. 2023. Vol. 13. No. 3 (96). P. 1222–1228.

Islamov D.R.

Under the Justice and Development Party (AKP), the Western Balkans’ direction in Turkey’s foreign policy took on a peculiar significance. However, from the 1990s to the mid-2000s, Turkey kept on contributing to NATO's missions and operations supporting Muslims during the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia and being eager to play an active role in stabilizing the region. Turkey also became the second country to recognize the Kosovo’s independence. In addition, Turkey consistently supported the membership of the Western Balkan states in NATO. A. Davutoğlu, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2014, gave a new impetus in establishing close relations with the region. Turkey embarked to increase the trade with the Western Balkans and intensively implement the soft-power tools. Moreover, in 2009, the Trilateral Consultation Mechanism was established at Turkey’s initiative to resolve political issues predominately between Serbia and BiH. Initially, this political initiative was held at the ministry of foreign affairs level. In 2010, for the first time the presidents of Turkey, BiH and Serbia met under the Trilateral Mechanism. Hence, the purpose of the paper is to study the core principles of Turkey’s foreign policy towards the Western Balkans in the Davutoğlu Era and to determine to what extent they were put into practice.

Keywords: Turkey, Turkish foreign policy, Western Balkans, neo-Ottomanism, Davutoglu, trilateral mechanism for negotiation