The rise and demise of the Turkish trading state

?The rise and demise of the Turkish trading state; is there a way out?? was the title of the speech Professor Kemal Kiri?ci delivered recently to mark the fifth year of the Foreign Policy Forum of Bo?aziçi University and TÜS?AD, Turkey?s top business body.

Kiri?ci, who currently works at Brookings Institute as a TÜS?AD senior fellow, is the scholar who had  introduced the concept of a ?trading state? to explain one of the factors transforming Turkey?s foreign policy in the 2000?s from ??regional coercive power? to a ?benign? if not ?soft? power.?

Kiri?ci had substantiated his thesis by providing key statistics about Turkey?s foreign trade. In 1975, the percentage of overall trade in the GDP was 9 percent. In 1995, it reached 23 percent. By 2005, trade made up 39 percent and by 2007, 42 percent of the GDP; this showed the degree to which Turkey was integrating into the world economy.

Beginning with the liberalization policies of the 1980?s, several factors contributed to Turkey?s integration into the world economy. A Customs Union with the European Union and the start of accession talks with the Union, as well as the world?s economic situation, are but a few of them.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power a few months after the term BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) was introduced into the jargon as a symbol of the apparent shift in global economic power away from the developed G7 economies towards the developing world. As the Western world suffered from financial crisis, in the ?West and the Rest? equation, the latter was becoming more attractive.

The AKP government?s zero problem policy with their neighbors, including decisions such as lifting visa requirements, contributed to...