The review of Turkish foreign policy towards The Middle East in terms of classical and critical geopolitical paradigms

Even though geopolitics is simply considered as an examination of the relationship between politics and geography, the versatility and the diversity of this discourse are noteworthy. It can be fathomed that this discourse is divided into two main branches as classical and critical geopolitics. It is acknowledged that classical geopolitical view is intertwined with Realist theory yet there seems to be many questions to be uncovered, and that the views contrasting the classical geopolitics are verbalized more loudly. Such questions and opposing views seeking answers are referred to as 'Critical Geopolitics' which we hear about more and more nowadays. It can be argued that critical geopolitics outlines the classical view of the geography-politics liaison and for this purpose it strives for an awareness on missing and problematic aspects of the established perceptions. In terms of issues on which they differ from each other, both sides have their own crucial justifications which they advocate strongly. Therefore, the ways both sides differ from each other in terms of mindset and implementation should be taken into account when geopolitical reviews are carried out. It can be observed that various strategies have been pursued in different periods of Turkey's foreign policy relations. For instance, while Turkey's foreign policy towards the Middle East used to be described with expressions like 'Westernism', and 'Status Quo', we now come across current expressions like 'Axis Shift' , 'Modeling' , 'Neo-Ottomanism' and 'Zero-Problem with Neighbours'. Accordingly, such expressions should also be mentioned in a review regarding Turkey's foreign policy towards the Middle East and those mentions should be assessed from a geopolitical perspective. In such a review, there is a need to find out whether the current expressions has led to a geopolitical change or not. To come up with such answers, it is necessary to consider the following issue: If a change is likely to be mentioned, the extent to which these current expressions exist in critical geopolitics that is discussed as latest geopolitical studies. Thus, the susceptibility of the current critical geopolitical expressions in Turkey's foreign policy towards the Middle East should be investigated and supported with examples. Although the findings to obtained will be shaped in accordance with the relativity of the data, the power of critical geopolitics on current expressions regarding Turkey's geopolitical foreign policy towards the Middle East in 21st Century can only be tested with this method. By and large, any review on the foreign policy of the Republic of Turkey towards the Middle East necessitates the evaluation of the current expressions within the framework of critical geopolitics paradigms.