Soaring prices became the central issue as the March 31, 2019, municipal elections approached. Because municipalities in Turkey are responsible for administering many basic services, the elections were important not only for the ability of the AKP to implement its national political agenda, but the outcome was also expected to reflect public dissatisfaction with the rising costs of living. In the months leading up to the elections, the AKP-led government in several cities began to set up stalls to sell produce at cost. Meanwhile, Erdoğan, campaigning for the party, blamed rising prices on foreign interference and pledged to conduct crackdowns on wholesalers. Despite these efforts, election results showed that the AKP had lost its hold on five of Turkey’s six largest cities, including Ankara and Istanbul. Negotiations with the PKK
The PKK, quiescent since the capture of Öcalan in 1999, resumed guerrilla activities in 2004 under a new name, Kongra-Gel, chosen in 2003. Although the organization reverted to its former designation (PKK) in 2005, some elements continued to make use of the new name. The group was thought to be the source of a number of subsequent attacks, and in October 2007 the Turkish parliament approved military action for one year against PKK targets across the border in Iraq; a series of strikes began in December, and a ground incursion was initiated in February. Although the United States indicated its support for the limited maneuvers against the PKK by sharing intelligence with Turkey, it encouraged the development of a long-term resolution to the conflict.
Beginning in 2009, Turkish officials and PKK leaders held secret talks to explore options for peace. Negotiations faltered when the repatriation of 34 PKK fighters and refugees to Turkey in late 2009 provoked a public celebration among PKK supporters, angering Turkish officials. The negotiations continued for several more rounds before ending in 2011 without progress. During that time Turkish authorities continued to arrest members of legal Kurdish parties, usually on charges of having belonged to terrorist groups. Violence increased after talks ended, reaching its highest level in more than a decade.
A new round of peace negotiations between Turkey and the PKK was announced in December 2012. From early on, the new talks showed more promise than the ones that had ended in 2011. In March 2013 the PKK released eight Turkish hostages, and PKK leader Öcalan, still in Turkish custody, announced his support for a cease-fire. Foreign affairs since 1950 Western-oriented policy
Until the 1960s, Turkish foreign policy was wholly based on close relations with the West, particularly the friendship of the United States. Turkey sent troops to fight in the Korean War and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO; 1952) and the Central Treaty Organization (1955). This Western-oriented policy derived from Turkey’s fear of its enormous northern neighbour, the Soviet Union, from its dependence on U.S. military and economic aid, and from its desire to be accepted as a secular, democratic, Western state. After 1960, however, this policy came into question as a consequence of East-West détente, the rise of economic and political cooperation in western Europe, and the growing economic importance of Middle Eastern countries.
Doubts also began to creep into Turkish political thought about the reliability of the United States as an ally, especially in consequence of events in Cyprus. The independence of Cyprus had been arranged through the Zürich and London agreements of 1959. Turkey sought to protect the interests of the Turkish community on Cyprus, and, when these were threatened by disputes between Turkish and Greek Cypriots in 1963 and again in 1967, Turkey contemplated intervention. In July 1974 the Greek government supported the leaders of a coup that overthrew the Cypriot president, Makarios III, and proclaimed the union of Cyprus with Greece. Failing to persuade either Britain or the United States to take effective action, Turkey acted unilaterally and occupied the northern part of the island, refusing to withdraw until a new arrangement satisfactory to the Turkish Cypriots was agreed to and guaranteed. These events, which were followed by disputes over the extent of territorial waters, underwater resources in the Aegean Sea, sovereignty over uninhabited islands, and airspace, led to bad relations with Greece and a cooling of relations with the United States, which Turks believed had favoured Greece. In 1987 and 1996 Turkey and Greece came to the brink of war over the Aegean. Turkey broadens foreign relations
As a result of its experience with Cyprus and the Aegean Sea, Turkey—while remaining faithful to the Western alliance—broadened its options. From 1964 it developed better relations with the Soviet Union, leading to a friendship agreement in 1978. Following the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, however, Turkey was quick to establish relations with the newly independent Transcaucasian and Central Asian states (many of which had Turkic-speaking majorities). Turkey recognized the government of mainland China in 1971, improved relations with the Balkan states (although relations with Bulgaria were disturbed by an exodus of 300,000 Turkish refugees from that country in 1989), and cultivated closer connections with the Arab and Islamic world.
In the former Yugoslavia, popular Turkish sympathy for the Bosnian Muslims led Turkey to advocate international action on their behalf, and Turkish forces took part in the United Nations (UN) and NATO operations there. Turkey cooperated with Iraq in suppressing Kurdish disorder, although it supported the UN against Iraq in the Persian Gulf War, allowing use of U.S. air bases in Turkey. In return, the United States extended the defense agreement that was due to expire in 1990 and increased military and economic aid.
International sanctions against Iraq cost Turkey hundreds of millions of dollars a year in oil pipeline revenues. Turkey’s relations with Syria were adversely affected by Syria’s support for Kurdish rebels and by Syrian concern over the construction of the Atatürk Dam in southeastern Turkey, which threatened to divert the Euphrates River, whose flow is shared by Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. Attempt to join the European Union
Turkey applied to join the European Economic Community (succeeded by the EU) in 1959, and an association agreement was signed in 1963. In 1987 Özal applied for full membership. The increasing economic links between Turkey and the EU—more than half of Turkey’s trade was with the EU in the 1990s—gave the application a stronger economic justification. However, doubts persisted in the EU, where Turkish policy on human rights and on Cyprus was criticized, and in Turkey, where the Islamists opposed membership. Nevertheless, in 1996 a customs union between Turkey and the EU was inaugurated. In the final years of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st, Turkey continued to flirt with membership in the EU. To strengthen its bid, the Turkish government began pursuing a number of key changes. In the early 21st century the emphasis on freedom of speech and Kurdish-language rights was accompanied by a reformed penal code and a decrease in the role of the military in politics. In 2004 the death penalty was banned, a move largely lauded by the EU community.