Turkey?s New Role: Being a European in the Middle East.

This paper tries to understand mainly the EU policies toward Middle East with particular focus Turkey?s role in the region. The possibility of Turkey joining the European Union has spurred heated debate within the EU, but it is also fascinating the entire Middle East. This interest has been interpreted in Turkey as a clear signal that Ankara has emerged as a powerful regional actor. The change in Turkish policy-makers? language and rhetoric is clearly visible and bears considerable influence on foreign policy. In this line of thought, Turkey?s reform process paved the way for a number of structural changes in domestic landscape, which also changed the foreign policy attitudes toward the Middle East. What has suddenly given formerly inward-looking Turkish politicians this newfound self-assurance that they can influence regional politics? What promise does Turkey hold for the region? Did Turkey?s perception of the Middle East change? What will be the priority areas in Turkey?s new policy toward the Middle East? Can Turkey really contribute to the EU policies of enhancing regional security and stability? Why would the EU care about Turkish positions in the Middle East?Indeed, Turkey?s new ruling elite is confident that their country can play an active peace-making role in the Middle East. In this paper, one will focus on the role of Turkey?s aspirations for the EU membership and, consequently, political transformation and reform in the emergence of the new policy attitudes in the Middle East. The process that one will focus in this article is the Europeanization of Turkey?s policy toward a number of Middle Eastern problems. While studying this change of policy line, one will build a framework which puts emphasis on both historical background and current developments to understand Turkey?s decision to follow European perspectives in a number of critical regional problems. Although Turkey?s EU aspirations and progress gained momentum in past several years, an historical analysis denotes that Turkey has been closer to the EU positions in some issues, contrary to the widespread idea that Ankara followed a pro-U.S. stance in the Middle East for a long time. Within the limits and scopes of the article, one choose Arab-Israeli conflict and, more specifically, Palestinian Question vis-à-vis the development of Turkish foreign policy in the region. Following the historical analysis, which will put more focus on the developments in recent era, one will also discuss Turkey?s possible role in enhancing a more active, dynamic, timely and influential EU policy toward the Middle East. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]