Gulf War and Its Effects on Turkish Foreign Policy

On August 2, 1990 the Gulf Crisis, starting with Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and then gained an international dimension with the resolutions of the United Nations turned into the Gulf War on 15 January 1990 because Iraq didn’t recede from territories it occupied. The war supported by 40 countries, especially the USA and organized from the Persian Gulf has profoundly affected the countries of the region and world politics. As a result of the bombardments that took 4 days and land operation which continued till February 28, the largest military force, after World War II, defeated the Iraqi. As for Turkey, instead of staying neutral in the war, the country supported the coalition power, but at the end of the war it ended up one of the most vulnerable countries. Apart from the significant economic loss confronting the country, it was forced to deal with issues such as the refugees in the long term, the Kurdish issue and the PKK’s further strengthening. On the other hand, international policy was redesigned due to factors such as the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, October 3, 1990 in East and West Germany's reunification and the disintegration of the Soviet Union officially on December 25, 1991. With the end of the Second World War began bipolar world order created by the Soviet Union-the US and including struggle between the two states accordingly. According to social scientists, the atmosphere of the cold war has come to an end partly after 1991. While the collapse of the Soviet Union led to the emergence of many new state, battleground is concentrated in the Middle East and the former Soviet territory. In this study, the role played by Turkey during the Gulf War and in the transition to a new world order ,and politics Turkey carried out will be discussed.

Keywords

The Gulf War, Iraq, Kuwait, Turkey, the United States, the United Nations