Turkey to reassess its national security strategy

According to the Turkish Newspaper Milliyet, Turkey is planning to introduce its new national security strategy and as it has become known that it plans to exclude Russia, Greece, Iran and Iraq from the list of countries which are considered a threat to the country. The Turkish government plans to reassess the so called “red book” – the political document covering national security policy. General headquarters is preparing the draft which will be finalised following consideration by the National Security Council. It was last amended in 2005. Among the domestic threats, Turkey considered Islamic radicalism, separatism and activities of leftist movements. The major external threat for Turkey is international terrorism. In the 2005 strategy, Iran’s nuclear programme was considered one of the external threats. The new draft strategy document project will be considered by the National Security Strategy in October, 2010 in the National Security Council and it is likely to contain some serious modifications. For instance, Russia will most probably be considered a friendly country. The document will reflect the development of economic cooperation, trade potential and energy, as well as a common vision for stability in the Caucasus region. It is particularly noteworthy that in previous Red Books, the Russian Federation was considered a threat to Turkey, mainly because of its energy strategy in the Caucasus and different interests in the Caucasus region.