Why is Turkey's Military Everywhere?

This video is brought to you by Ground News. Ever since Erdogan came to power, Turkey has been steadily expanding its military footprint across its near abroad. Today, Turkish troops are stationed in 12 countries and the country hasn't had such an extensive military presence since the Ottoman Empire. Since just the start of this year, Turkey has signed security deals with Iraq, Somalia and its two fellow NATO members, Bulgaria and Romania, and has penciled in an unprecedented 150% increase in

its 2024 defense budget. So in this video, we're going to have a look at Turkey’s foreign military operations in the last few years, where Turkey is flexing its military muscles today and how these new military operations fit into President Erdogan’s wider foreign policy. Before we start, if you haven't already, please consider subscribing and ringing the bell to stay in the loop and be notified when we release new videos. So let's start with some background. According to Global Firepower Powe

r Index, Turkey's military is the eighth strongest in the world. and with its force of 425,000 soldiers, Turkey now has NATO's second largest army. It's also quickly becoming one of the world's biggest arms exporters, selling stuff like Bayraktar drones to everyone from Ethiopia to Ukraine. But how did Turkey's military get so influential? Well, Turkey's military build up really began when Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party, who have sometimes been described as ‘neo-Ottoman,’ cam

e to power in 2002. Things stepped up a notch after the Arab Spring, and start of the Syrian civil war. The AKP became more assertive in its foreign policy to respond to the increasing threats in its immediate neighborhood. During the Syrian civil war, for instance, Turkey was heavily involved in training troops in the Syrian National Army or SNA, to fight against Syria's Bashar al-Assad government, and to counter the influence of the Kurdish militant group, the YPG, in northern Syria. Since t

hen, Turkish military have conducted multiple cross-border military operations targeting the Kurdish militant groups in Iraq and Syria. However, in the past few years or so, Turkey has stepped things up yet another notch, selling drones and deploying troops in places like Ukraine, the Gulf, and East Africa, presumably in an attempt by Erdogan to take advantage of the accelerating geopolitical fragmentation we're seeing across the world today. So let's look at where Turkey's military is invol

ved today, starting in the Middle East, where Turkey recently announced plans to launch a major offensive in Iraq against the PKK this summer. Kurdish militants are the main security risk to Turkey, and Turkish forces currently control roughly half of the Syrian territory bordering Turkey and nearly all of the Iraqi territory bordering Turkey, which acts as a buffer zone between Turkey and Kurd controlled areas. Things escalated late last year after dozens of Turkish soldiers clashed with PKK s

oldiers on Turkish outposts in northern Iraq. And, there was yet another skirmish this week. As a result, Erdogan has vowed that the military would step up its operations against both the PKK and the Syrian offshoot, the YPG. To this end, last week, Turkish and Iraqi officials, agreed a landmark security deal to crack down on Kurdish militants in Iraq's semi-autonomous region. Iraqi leaders have effectively banned the PKK, naming it a ‘terrorist organization’ after years of Turkish insistence.

The Turkish defense minister has stated that the country will create a ‘buffer zone’ ‘eliminate the terrorist issue’ by the summer and push the PKK south. Turkey has even reportedly been trying to convince the Syrian government to support a possible operation of the Turkish military through Egypt and the UAE. This would be in part about containing Kurdish troops, but also about developing the Iraq development road trade routes. Not only is this trade route important for Turkey's vision to int

egrate Ankara to the middle corridor trade route, running all the way east to China, but also connects Ankara with the Gulf. another region that Turkey's become a key player in, and intends to expand its military presence. The Turkey-Qatar alliance has been particularly robust over the past decade, culminating in Turkey opening its first base in the Middle East and signing an expanded security agreement in 2022. Qatar has since assisted Turkey's military operation in Somalia and assisted wit

h humanitarian missions, such as reuniting Gazan refugees with their families. In Africa, as Western influence wanes and Chinese foreign investment declines, Turkey is stepping into the emerging geopolitical power vacuum, upgrading diplomatic relations, investing lots of money and selling weapons such as the Bayraktar TB2. Somalia is a paradigm case for Turkey's military involvement in Africa. Since 2017, Somalia hosts Turkey's largest overseas military base in Mogadishu, where hundreds of Turki

sh troops have been training Somali soldiers under a broader Turkish plan to help rebuild the country, devastated by decades of clan warfare and Islamist insurgency. Last month, the Somali cabinet signed a defence agreement with Turkey called the Framework Agreement for Defense and Economic Cooperation. Turkey is going to help Somalia develop its own navy, which doesn't yet exist. In return, Turkey will receive around 30% of the revenue from the Somali exclusive economic zone. Turkey's milit

ary assistance was also decisive in the Libyan war, and last November, Erdogan forwarded a motion to extend the mandate for Turkish forces deployed in Libya until 2026. There are concerns that fighting may break out again, so Erdogan’s extension of the mandate serves to protect Turkey's interests in Libya and the bordering Mediterranean, where Turkey has an ongoing territorial dispute over newly discovered gas fields in the region and a significant troop deployment in northern Cyprus. There hav

e also been reports that Ankara sent Syrian mercenaries to fight ISIS in Niger after the French withdrawal last year. More generally, the coup in Niger last year signaled a shift away from western influence towards Turkey, who is seen as a viable alternative security provider in the Sahel after their successful intervention in Libya. Finally, in the caucuses Turkey played a critical role in Azerbaijan, winning its recent war against Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. T

urkey has also pressed to help Azerbaijan secure the Zangezur corridor, which Turkey wants to develop into a transport and energy corridor between Azerbaijan and Europe, which, according to Turkish officials, would benefit, quote, the whole Turkic world. All in all, Turkey's expansion of its military operations are apparently an effort to take advantage of power vacuums to establish itself as a middle power and secure different trade routes connecting Asia to Europe. But there also could be a

domestic angle. Ahead of local elections on March 31st, Erdogan has been using these military operations and preexisting conflicts to court his nationalist voting base and convince the electorate that, despite his economic woes, he’s making progress transforming Turkey into a regional superpower. Whether Erdogan will succeed in the upcoming elections is another question entirely and something we'll need to keep an eye on. This is made all the easier thanks to our sponsor, Ground News. Their

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