Corridors of Turkish Influence: Ankara’s Euro-Asian Route

The article looks into Türkiye’s new unofficial foreign policy ideology of the corridors, which complements the existing hub ideology from both theoretical and practical points of view. The key aim of the study is to examine the relationship between the ideological concepts of hub and corridor and ways of their application in the framework of Ankara’s energy, trade and economic policies. The idea of the hub is to assert Türkiye as a major logistics, energy, transport, trade, etc. center on a global scale. At the same time, this status is achieved through several integral and mutually complementary mechanisms: Turkish-centric integration and corridors with the help of which Türkiye brings itself closer to the goal. The types of corridors may vary depending on the kind of hub that Türkiye seeks to achieve: for example, economic, food, energy, transport or security hub. The ideology of corridors is most effective in the trade and economic sphere. That is why the Europe-China corridor remains the main route for modern Türkiye, which will allow it to reach another extra-regional level and fit itself into the «One Belt, One Road» project as one of its most important participants. In order to implement this strategy Türkiye builds mini-corridors – various projects that allow it to somehow connect simultaneously with Europe, Asia or its related territories: Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline, Middle Corridor, TRACECA and others are among such projects. Nevertheless, Türkiye’s ambitious plans require a large amount of resources and finance that Ankara does not have. Türkiye’s further policy in this direction will depend on the actions of the ruling elite, relations with its partners and the position of other regional minihubs – primarily Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

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