The Republic of Türkiye on the Eve of the Centenary: The Era of R.T. Erdogan

Abstract

In 2023, the Republic of Türkiye celebrated its centenary. Standing at the head of republican Türkiye in 1923, the first president of the country, M.K. Ataturk, saw it as independent and free from logic imposed from outside. Nevertheless, Türkiye, whose history included both a pro-Western period and an open struggle against manifestations of the Western neocolonialism based on national interests, has experienced a series of ups and downs over a century-long period. Moreover, a new M.K. Ataturk appeared in its lifetime in the person of the ambitious R.T. Erdogan, who seeks to start the history of the country from scratch. The ideological and foreign policy foundations of Türkiye have undergone the greatest transformation in the last 100 years. Modern Ankara is approaching an important milestone in its history as an independent regional power and a leader who holds a confident course towards joining the “top league” - a group of world actors-members of the UN Security Council. The ideal of the president of the country is a neo-imperial Türkiye, combining the best practices of the past “Kemalism” and modern “neo-Ottomanism,” which is realized through the export of “Turkishness” and the promotion of Turkocentric ideologies into the world, supported by practical actions in a vast geographical space that goes far beyond Türkiye. The study concludes that over the long history of its existence, the Republic of Türkiye has developed a number of ideological and value concepts that serve as a support for the implementation of its foreign policy. As an anthropological state, Türkiye, like a human being, has primary - vital - and secondary needs, related to the perception of other international actors. At the same time, it is important that while the satisfaction of secondary needs is carried out by Ankara quite successfully, the replenishment of primary causes certain difficulties. The economic situation remains particularly difficult, which, in turn, is capable of affecting the general welfare of the state in the future, making it unstable amid general international environment and thereby provoking a certain “existential crisis.”