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Turkey’s Foreign Policy towards Iraq
59
Conclusion
This study has examined Turkey’s foreign policy towards Iraq, particularly after the
end of the Cold War. It has reaffirmed that Turkey deviated from its non-interference
policy with the end of the Cold War and that the first example of this deviation came with
the Gulf crisis. It is possible to surmise that in light of the changes within international
society throughout the 1990s, Turkey sought to reconcile human and global security with
its own national interests and national security. Major steps taken towards Iraq by different
Turkish coalition governments during the 1990s, as well as by the JDP during the 2000s,
certainly reflect this search on the part of Turkey, and should be accepted as an element of
continuity in Turkey’s foreign policy towards Iraq.
However, the first important difference in Turkey’s approach towards Iraq in the
2000s with respect to that adopted in the 1990s is that Turkey is engaged in Iraq in a
much more comprehensive way than before, due to the invasion of Iraq by the US. The
institutionalization of relations with the KRG seems to be the most evident outcome of
the foregoing. The second difference, however, is Turkey’s search for new instruments
as a component of its approach towards Iraq. Democratization reforms vis-à-vis the
Kurdish population inside Turkey since 2009 could thus be linked to Turkey’s changing
perception of the interrelation between domestic politics and foreign policy and
consequently Turkey’s search for new tools to resolve the Kurdish problem, including in
the southern part of Turkey and Northern Iraq. In that sense, it would not be wrong to
state that Turkey’s approach towards Iraq has always developed within the framework of
the Kurdish problem inside Turkey. Turkey’s ultimate goal with all these components is
to preserve Iraq’s territorial integrity and state sovereignty. Whether this goal changes or
not, only time will tell.
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