Turkey’s strategic outlook is making a gradual shift away from the West, driven by Ankara’s growing concern about the potential for instability on the country’s southern and eastern flanks. Turkish leaders are now seeing eye-to-eye with Russia on several important geopolitical issues. Turkey continues to publicly cast itself as a country with an unshakable Western orientation, serving as a long-time NATO member and a strategic partner of the United States, as well as and aspiring to European Union membership. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. But behind the official rhetoric, geopolitical developments in recent years, especially the Iraq imbroglio, have shaken the faith of many in Ankara about the country’s Western orientation. Full Story