ABSTRACT
Turkey has been very active on the international stage since the Justice and Development Party (JDP) took power. Since the discovery of gas fields in the Mediterranean, Turkey and several of its neighbours have claimed rights to them. However, Ankara is not a signatory to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which sets out how to delimit exclusive economic zones extending 200 miles from their shores. According to the Turkish authorities, the EU and the United States are supportive of Greek and Greek Cypriot policies, although EU countries are divided on how to show this support. In this context, Turkey wants to have Russia and China on its side in the Eastern Mediterranean disputes in order to balance the influence of the United States and the EU. Turkey’s reaction to the position of the major powers in the Levant crisis is largely determined by their vested interests in the region, Ankara’s foreign policy ideology (Mavi Vatan ideology), its growing military and economic capabilities (recently stalled) and the changing international system.
