Turkish Foreign Policy: Telling Style from Substance, Winter 2008

Thursday, February 5, 2009 | Download PDF in English

On 29 January 2009, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stormed out of a debate with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the Davos World Economic Forum. With impassioned Peres defending Israel’s offensive in Gaza and an outraged Erdoğan accusing him of “knowing well how to kill people” and, having been cut off by the moderator, vowing never to return to Davos, the event certainly made for pretty good television. Contrary to what some commentators have alleged, however, it did not make for a watershed moment in Turkish foreign policy. Turkey remains anchored in the West – even if its recent policy vis-à-vis the near-abroad is more assertive and more autonomous than ever before.

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Piotr Zalewski

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