ABSTRACT
This chapter aims mainly to focus on the reasons for the recent amelioration of Turkish-Iranian and Turkish-Syrian relations in terms of understanding the Justice and Development Party's (AKP's) new jargon, which presents Turkey as a regional broker on the grounds of her Islamic moderation and good relations with the West. It discusses whether the upgrading of Turkey's relations with Syria and Iran is a counter-alliance in the unipolar world of the 2000s and to what extent Ankara can adopt a policy that radiates greater independence in the post-9/11 environment in terms of its relations with the US. Turkey's policy of rapprochement with her two neighbours, Syria and Iran, which gained momentum after the 2003 Iraq war, should be analyzed on several levels. The problematic nature of and uncertainties in Turkish-EU relations in the period between 1989-1992 contributed to a search for alternatives such as initiating the Black Sea Economic Cooperation scheme and establishing closer links with Central Asian Republics.
