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Turkey at the Crossroads of the World

Writer: Morgan McBride
Morgan McBride
2 days ago
7 min read

At the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, Turkey is a nation of eighty-seven million people at the crossroads of the world.





Situated in both Europe and Asia, Turkey’s unique position allows it to serve as both a barrier and a bridge between the two continents. The nation’s direct access to the Mediterranean, Aegean, and Black Sea maximizes the strategic possibilities for goods and people to travel to Turkey, either as a final destination or as a midpoint stop on their journey. Turkey and its predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, have been a prevalent intersection for trade and migration flows for more than seven hundred years. Bordering eight nations, the country’s location puts it close to the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Whether by land or sea routes, the smuggling and trafficking of people, drugs, weapons, and other goods have been able to exploit the strategic location and geopolitical ecosystem of Turkey.






As geopolitical shifts reshape global supply chains, the Middle Corridor has emerged as a major Eurasian trade route linking East Asia to Europe. The Middle Corridor, also known as the Trans-Caspian International Trade Route, is a complex network of land and sea routes connecting China, Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and Europe. As shown in Figure 1, the Middle Corridor runs through China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey, then continues onward through Europe. The lingering impacts of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the conflict surrounding the Strait of Hormuz on global supply chains sparked a need for new transportation routes between Asia and Europe that did not rely on Russia or the Red Sea.


While these pathways can be used for legal trade, numerous criminal organizations, terrorist groups, and other illicit actors have also gained a new entry point for transiting their illicit activities. OMSAN Logistics board chair Ergun Arıburnu said evolving global supply chains have increased the Middle Corridor’s relevance, further solidifying Turkey’s position as a “full-fledged logistics hub.” Ergun Arıburnu further stated that “Turkey’s greatest advantage is its unique geography. Its position at the intersection of Europe, Asia, the Middle East, the Caucasus, and North Africa makes it a natural crossroads for trade and logistics.” Geographically, Turkey plays a significant role in the global transit of people, goods, and other entities.


The modern Turkish republic stems from the Ottoman Empire, which ruled over swaths of land in northern Africa, southeastern Europe, and the Middle East for more than 600 years. As a member of World War I’s losing coalition, the Ottoman Empire dissolved amid nationalist movements and partition agreements, eventually creating thirty-nine new countries we recognize today. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s regime cemented the Turkish Republic in 1923, leading to the nation’s development into a nationalist, secular, parliamentary democracy. The founders of modern Turkey strove to develop a strong Turkish national identity that differed from what they saw as an overly religious and excessively diverse Ottoman Empire. Reforms implemented by Atatürk and his successors institutionalized a more Westernized philosophy that disconnected governance from religion.





After Atatürk’s authoritarian one-party rule, and that of his successor İsmet İnönü, Turkey finally reached multiparty democracy in 1950. Military coups in 1960, 1971, and 1980 disrupted Turkey’s political and economic stability in its early years. The nation’s domestic politics oscillated, straining Turkey’s economic and political ecosystem as competing interests undermined the feasibility of forward development. The Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) arose in 2002 as a democratic, conservative, confessional movement. The party’s contradictory Islamist roots and secular democratic agenda remain central to AKP politics.


Since 2003, AKP leader and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has led Turkey either as prime minister (2003-14) or president (2014-). Hannah Lucinda Smith describes Erdoğan as “the original postmodern populist,” signifying his overarching desire to maintain power, as “winning is the only part of democracy that matters. It doesn’t matter how many lies you tell, how often you change your ideological course, so long as in the end you take your place on the winner’s podium.” Throughout his 23-year tenure leading Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s increasingly authoritarian leadership has gravely hampered the nation’s democratic institutions and capabilities. Together, Atatürk and Erdoğan remain the premier leaders of modern Turkish history, a period spanning a century of both immense development and stifling stagnation.


Joining the United Nations in 1945, Turkey became deeply involved in multilateral diplomacy immediately after its creation. Turkey and the European Union have had an oscillating relationship since 1963, as their accession negotiations have ebbed and flowed, with any forward progress now looking minimal. However, Turkey and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have remained significantly intertwined since Turkey joined in 1952. Turkey has maintained the second-largest standing army for NATO because of its mandatory military service for Turkish adult men. From that standpoint, Turkey maintains a significant presence in NATO operations; however, recent actions under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have damaged the nation’s relationship with NATO.


Then-mayor of Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, famously stated in 1996 that “Democracy is like a streetcar. You ride it until you arrive at your destination, and then you step off.” Erdoğan’s remarks reflect his administration’s shifting approach to foreign policy and diplomatic relationships throughout his time in power. The fracturing of Turkey-NATO relations ramped up in recent years, due to Turkey’s purchase of a significant quantity of Russian S-400 missile defense systems in 2019. Turkey’s use of Russian machinery gives Russia access to NATO intelligence and equipment specifications, as Turkey also uses several NATO-specific tools. Over the past few years, Turkey’s conflict with Greece and Cyprus, its domestic swing toward authoritarianism, tensions with Israel, and refusal to join sanctions on Russia, among other issues, have created a diverse array of constraints that stress Turkey’s relationship with NATO.


Despite the conflicts and pressures mentioned above, Turkey’s recent push toward defense-industrial and energy diplomacy has reshaped the nation’s role in geopolitical endeavors. The nation’s defense-industrial base comprises four primary enterprises: Roketsan (missiles and munitions), Baykar (unmanned systems), Turkish Aerospace Industries (manned aircraft and helicopters), and Aselsan (electronics, radar, and sensors). In 2024, Turkey’s defense and aerospace export value reached $7.15 billion, up 738.22% from the nation’s 2010 export value. The Global Firepower Index (GFP) ranks Turkey among the top 10 global military powers as of 2026. Turkey’s significant advances in the defense market have expanded its global footprint.





The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported that Turkey’s Bayraktar military drones had been ordered by or delivered to 28 countries as of 2024, including Nigeria, Ukraine, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, and many more. As of July 2026, the nation’s arms exports have surpassed $10 billion, cementing Turkey as one of the world’s premier weapons suppliers. Overall, the extensive defense industry has allowed Erdoğan’s administration to extend the nation’s global influence beyond the traditional scope of diplomacy. The balancing act allows Turkey to supply its drones to Ukraine while maintaining a productive relationship with Russia, as their weapons exports generally do not come attached with any political conditionality for either party, thus enhancing Turkey’s flexibility in the geopolitical space.


As a member of the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Group of Twenty (G20), and many other international organizations, Turkey has had a long-standing geopolitical presence since its beginnings in 1923. Over the past century, the nation’s foreign policy footprint has expanded and contracted repeatedly. As a member of the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Group of Twenty (G20), and many other international organizations, Turkey has maintained a long-standing geopolitical presence since its founding in 1923. Over the past century, the nation’s foreign policy footprint has expanded and contracted repeatedly. However, Turkey’s geopolitical footprint has remained central to Eurasia and the world at large.


According to the Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the nation’s foreign policy stems from the following approach: “As a result of its deepening and widening comprehensive policies, Türkiye has spawned the 3rd largest diplomatic network globally with 262 missions. It uses several complementary political, economic, humanitarian, and cultural tools and conducts a diplomacy that thinks globally but acts locally in every corner of the world.” Turkey’s positioning as a transregional power, with bargaining capabilities with the European Union and the United States, and its role as a connectivity hub between East and West, has underpinned its foreign policy in recent years.



Given the nation’s advantageous geography and robust geopolitical footprint, Turkey is part of the world’s ever-important connective tissue. While that connectivity benefits the legal economy, the illicit economy also benefits from Turkey’s ecosystem at the crossroads of the world.




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