Turkey-United Kingdom Relations in Recent Years: an Era of ‘Golden Age’?

Abstract

Although nothing extensively written so far, Turkey-UK relations reached a goodharmony in recent years and entered into an era of ‘golden age’ according to top state officialsin both countries. Intensification of bilateral economic relations -albeit global economic crisis-,cooperation concerning EU policies, similar reactions shown on both sides towards politicaldevelopments in the Middle East, shared approach in the Cyprus Dispute, common threatperception against Russian expansionism in Syria and Ukraine and the lack of a specific issuethat creates problems between two sides, are the main reasons of this progress. Moreover, thepositive image of British conservatism in Turkish Islamic-rightist movements contributes a lotto the progressive nature of the bilateral relations in recent years. This study aims to summarizethe main issues that characterize Turkey-UK relations in the last 5-6 years.