Turkey and the Balkans: Overcoming Prejudices, Building Bridges and Constructing a Common Future

Abstract

Turkey is a historically important regional actor and is trying to contribute to the establishment of a peaceful and secure environment in the Balkans. The region has had a salient place in the Turkish foreign policy agenda in the last two decades. In the 1990s Ankara started to play a considerable role by developing initiatives that aimed at contributing to the end of the conflicts there. This paper analyses Turkey's regional policies in the last decade in order to understand the main continuities and changes. The main research question of the study is as follows: Has there been any considerable change in Turkey's relations with the Balkan countries? The study has two fundamental arguments: First, although the main aims of Turkish foreign policy remain the same, there are now different instruments that have been implemented to an increasing degree. Second, relations have been transnationalising thanks to the spillover effects of globalisation.