Turkey

It is a country located at the crossroads of the Balkans, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Caucasus and the Middle East. Turkey has historically been swamped with an internal debate with regard to its identity and place in the world, which has direct implications for its foreign policy. While the social cleavages such as the secular-religious divide, the Turkish-Kurdish nationalist divide and the recently emerging regime cleavage oftentimes create political polarization within the country, the policy makers usually present Turkey as a country with both an Eastern and a Western identity in international relations. Turkey’s bid for EU membership has been plagued with uncertainty and fatigue throughout the history of EU-Turkey relations and at present, its path to full membership seems to be blocked.