Middle Powers and Competing Blocs

Turkey has been a NATO member since 1952 but has pursued an increasingly independent foreign policy under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, balancing relations with both Russia and Western partners. Its 2017 purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system led the United States to remove Turkey from the F-35 fighter jet program in 2019. Turkey, together with the United Nations, brokered the Black Sea Grain Initiative in July 2022, which allowed Ukrainian grain exports to resume through the Black Sea before Russia suspended its participation in July 2023. Turkey has also pursued more assertive regional policies, including interventions in Syria and Libya and military support for Azerbaijan during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, alongside a broader "Blue Homeland" doctrine asserting maritime claims in the Eastern Mediterranean.