ign and independent Turkey. All interests in foreign adventures were given up and a cautious foreign policy was developed. This foreign policy was based upon six premises. First, Turkey's exceptional geopolitical location afforded it an influential voice in world politics and attracted strong friends. Second, this exceptional position also worked as a disadvantage because it led to confrontations with major powers and attracted the unwanted attentions of potential "protectors." Third, as a small country at a crossroads, Turkey had to maintain freedom of movement, avoiding power blocks and diluting power among as many different nations as possible. Fourth, because Turkey was a small nation and power has always been the overriding consideration in the international system, practical politics was more important than idealism, promises, and sentiment. Fifth, as a small independent power, Turkey had to let other nations know that it was prepared to fight for the defense of its rights and territory, but that it would fight only in defense of these things. Finally, practical politics involved hard bargaining in the case of a small power; such bargaining was considered one of the highest forms of patriotism in Turkey.
Pragmatic politics and the playing of one power off another were traditional tenets of Turkish foreign policy. The Ottoman Empire constantly found itself in conflict with the Catholic/Protestant west and the Orthodox Russian empire, both of whom directed diplomatic and military attacks against the Muslim Ottomans. Yet, through skillful, and sometimes deceitful, diplomacy, the Ottomans were generally able to keep their empire intact. When they did ally themselves with one side in a European war, the First World War, they lost their empire. As Europe moved towards a second war, the Turkish government saw no reason to get involved in a conflict which could not benefit Turkey.
In the Twentieth Century, Turkey's ...