Historically, the
foreign relations of the Ottoman Empire and later Turkey balanced regional and global powers against one another, forming alliances that best protected the interests of the incumbent regime. The
Soviet Union played a major role in supplying weapons and financing
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's faction during the
Turkish War of Independence, but Turkey followed a course of relative international isolation during the period of
Atatürk's reforms in the 1920s and 1930s. International conferences gave Turkey full control of the strategic straits linking the Black Sea and the Mediterranean through the
Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 and the
Montreux Convention of 1936. In the late 1930s,
Nazi Germany made a major effort to promote anti-Soviet propaganda in Turkey. In response,
Britain and
France negotiated a tripartite treaty with Turkey in 1939 in which they gave Turkey a line of credit to purchase war materials from the West and a loan to facilitate the purchase of commodities. After threats from Germany and the Soviet Union, Turkey maintained neutrality. It sold
chrome—an important war material—to both sides, but by 1944, as the eventuality of German defeat grew more evident, chrome sales to Germany halted.
After 1945 has been occupied by Turkey since 1974. Turkey became
one of the early members of the
Council of Europe in 1950. Turkey applied for full membership of the
EEC in 1987, joined the
European Union Customs Union in 1995, and started
accession negotiations with the
European Union in 2005. In a non-binding vote on 13 March 2019, the
European Parliament called on the EU governments to suspend EU accession talks with Turkey, citing violations of human rights and the rule of law. The negotiations, which have been effectively on hold since 2018, remain active as of 2025. According to the United States government, the other defining aspect of Turkey's foreign policy has been the country's long-standing
strategic alliance with the United States. The
Truman Doctrine in 1947 enunciated American intentions to guarantee the security of Turkey and Greece during the
Cold War, and resulted in large-scale U.S. military and economic support to the countries. In 1948, both Turkey and Greece were included in the
Marshall Plan and the
OEEC for rebuilding European economies. Turkey joined
NATO in 1952, strengthening its bilateral ties with the United States. In the following decades, Turkey benefited from American political, economic, and diplomatic support—particularly on critical issues such as its longstanding bid for European Union membership. In the post–Cold War era, Turkey's geostrategic importance shifted towards its proximity to the
Middle East, the
Caucasus, and the Balkans. The independence of the Turkic states of the Soviet Union in 1991, with which Turkey shares a common cultural,
historic and
linguistic heritage, allowed Turkey to extend its economic and political relations deep into
Central Asia. The
International Organization of Turkic Culture (TURKSOY) was established in 1993, and the
Organization of Turkic States (OTS) was established in 2009. The
Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline, a multi-billion-dollar oil and natural gas
pipeline that extends from
Baku in
Azerbaijan to the port of
Ceyhan in Turkey, is a part of Turkey's foreign policy goal to become an energy conduit from the
Caspian Sea basin to Europe. Turkey sealed its land border with Armenia in a gesture of support to Azerbaijan (a Turkic state in the Caucasus region) during the
First (1993) and
Second (2020) Nagorno-Karabakh Wars. The border remains closed as of 2025, opening only twice to allow aid to pass through. In 2022, Armenia and Turkey started diplomatic talks to normalize the relationship between the two countries. Turkey and Armenia have also restarted commercial flights between the two countries. Under the
AKP government (2002–present), Turkey's economy has increased rapidly and the country's influence has expanded in the Middle East based on a strategic depth doctrine, though this doctrine has been accused of
Neo-Ottomanism. Debate on Turkey's foreign relations is controversial both within Turkey and internationally. In the West, there exists a divide between those who are worried about Turkey's perceived movement away from the West toward a less democratic, more Islamic or more pro-Russian and pro-Chinese orientation and those who do not see Turkey's changing political structure, growing regional power, and diversification of relations with countries such as Russia as a threat.
Relations with the European Union On 14 April 1987, Turkey applied for membership to the
European Economic Community (now the
European Union). On 12 December 1999, at the Helsinki Summit, the
European Council gives Turkey the
status of candidate country for EU membership, following the Commission's recommendation in its second Regular Report on Turkey. On 3 August 2002, The Turkish parliament abolished the death penalty to pave the way for the start of EU accession negotiations. On 16 December 2004, the European Council decides to start accession negotiations for Turkey to become a full member of the European Union. On 3 October 2005, the European Union decided to officially open accession negotiations with Turkey. On 24 November 2016, the
European Parliament votes to suspend accession negotiations with Turkey over human rights and rule of law concerns. On 25 April 2017, the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) unanimously adopted a call to place Turkey back under monitoring due to setbacks in democracy, human rights, the rule of law, freedom of expression, and judicial independence. Turkey last officially exited the monitoring process in 2004 when it began accession negotiations with the European Union. On 26 June 2018, the EU's
General Affairs Council stated that "the Council notes that Turkey has been moving further away from the European Union. Turkey's accession negotiations have therefore effectively come to a standstill and no further chapters can be considered for opening or closing and no further work towards the modernisation of the
EU-Turkey Customs Union is foreseen." The Council added that it is "especially concerned about the continuing and deeply worrying backsliding on the rule of law and on fundamental rights including the freedom of expression." On 19 May 2021, the European Parliament unanimously accepted the call for the suspension of accession negotiations between the European Union and Turkey. While Turkey officially has diplomatic relations with 26
EU member states, it does not have diplomatic relations with 1 EU member state (
Cyprus). ==Diplomatic relations==