A difficult era awaits Turkey on foreign policy

Sunday's parliamentary election will mark yet another milestone in Turkish political history, just five months after the election in which the Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its single-party government for the first time in 13 years. The Nov. 1 re-election came about as a product of President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and the AKP top brass' discontent with the June 7 poll results; they forced another election in order to fix this and push for the required majority at parliament. 

There is no need to speculate more about the potential results of the election, as we'll all have a clear picture late on Nov. 1. Instead, let's evaluate a potential change in Turkery's foreign policy, particularly on Syria, in the aftermath of the election. 

However, before speculating, it's worth analyzing the main developments in foreign policy between the two elections. It should be noted that a caretaker government has been in place during this period, in which two important agreements have been reached. 

The first came in mid-July with the U.S. over the use of Turkish airbases and airspace by American warplanes in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The second was reached with the EU over handling the growing refugee crisis in return for re-energizing Turkey's stalled accession talks. 

(Equally important, the appointment of Foreign Ministry undersecretary Feridun Sinirlio?lu as the caretaker minister should also be counted as a positive move. As a high-level Turkish diplomat told me recently, "Under his leadership we can pinpoint on very specific issues.")

Although these two blueprints address totally different issues, some of their aspects can be interpreted under the same headline. 

Firstly,...