Anthony Deriziotis

Lecturer

aderiziot[at]turkmas.uoa[dot]gr

3 hours per week

Course Objectives

From the evasive neutral to the diplomacy of Davutoğlu. The course will allow students to follow Turkey's position in the international arena since 1923, by emphasizing on the principles that have been forming it, Turkey's peripheral role, its aims and fears during the Cold War and the subsequent transformation in the post-Cold War environment. The focus of the course is on:

i) Turkey's course since the birth of the nation-state and through the international treaties and alliances, its continuous struggle to secure its borders in the polarized post-World War II international environment and the search for a new role in the post Cold War era.

ii) The principles of Turkish diplomacy that shaped its political choices.

Course Structure

1. The war of Independence

This subject area's main point of reference is Turkey's effort to safeguard its sovereignty against isolation and the Italian aggression since the war of independence and during the inter-war period, through the treaties of Sevres, Lausanne and Montreaux and by signing the Balkan and the Saadabad Agreements and several bilateral agreements with the Balkan states (3 lectures).

2. Post-Kemal years

The period from  World War II until 1947, and the fear of Soviet and German aggressions that led Turkey to ally with Britain and France, while remaining neutral during the war (2 lectures).

3. Cold War

By the end of the World War II Turkey is in a difficult position, due to the increasing pressure from the Soviet Union, while its neutrality during the war has taken its toll towards relations with its allies, Britain and France. France's devastation and Britain's weakened state forced Turkey to seek support from the other side of the Atlantic ocean, betting on the British-Αmerican fear of the Soviet imperialism in the Balkan peninsula, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East (5 lectures).

4. Post Cold-War period

The end of the Cold War shutters the bipolar balance of power and creates a power gap in the former Soviet regions of Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Middle East. Turkey is attempting to fill the gap with trade, economic and cultural agreements with the newly formed states. The rise to power of the AKP and the Davutoĝlu doctrine sends ripples to Turkey's traditional alliances, as emphasis is now on the Muslim states mainly of the Middle East (3 lectures).

Assessment

Essay (25%), mid-term test (25%), final written examination (50%).

Bibliography

Athanassopoulou, E., Turkey: Anglo-American security interests, 1945-1952, (London: Frank Cass, 1999)

Aydin, M., and Erhan, Ç., (eds), Turkish American relations: Past, present and future, (London: Routledge, 2004)

Davutoğlu, A., Το στρατηγικό βάθος, μτφ Ν. Ραπτόπουλος, (Αθήνα: Ποιότητα, 2010)

Hale, W., Turkish foreign policy, 1774-2000, (London: Frank Cass, 2000)

Webber, F.G., The Evasive Neutral: Germany, Britain and the Quest for a Turkish Alliance in the Second World War, (Columbia, University of Missouri press: 1979)