DISCUSSIONS ON THE RECENT AXIS SHIFT IN TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY AND RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA

Since the second half of 2009, the number of comments, articles and columns asserting that Turkey turned its face towards the South and the East by growing away from the Transatlantic system, and also indicating that Turkey was in a process of axis shift, increased to a great extent in leading newspapers and journals of the Western world. Debates on the axis shift and Turkey’s search for alternatives show us that Turkey now pays greater attention to political or economic alternatives than before. Turkey has not experienced a serious “axis shift” in its foreign policy, but it is certainly going through an “axis expansion”. The most important aspect of Turkish foreign policy in the process of axis expansion is undoubtedly taking place with the multi-faceted relations developed with Russia.