Turkey's Developmental Foreign Policy during the AKP Period: The Caucasian Case

Caucasus has been an important region for Turkey since the collapse of the Soviet Union. This importance emanates from the region’s own natural resources، its position at the crossroads of the oil and gas rich regions of the world and chronic political instability and security threats. Turkey as the key neighbour of the Caucasus has experienced state – led fundamental and structural changes which have culminated in strengthening productive and industrial foundations. Foreign policy has also been affected by the process of economic development. Although Turkish foreign policy has been shaped by different factors، AKP’s Islamic trends، leads us to investigate the main determinants of Turkish foreign policy since 2002. We have come to this Despite AKP’s Islamic trends، developmental goals and concerns are still the first priority of Turkish foreign policy and Turkey’s attitude towards the Caucasus region، which is located along one of the most important energy transit corridors of the world and provides Turkey’s increasingly growing industries and Anatoli’s SMEs with vast energy resources and a relatively lucrative market.