Master Thesis Defense: Ali İhsan Kahraman
GEOPOLITICS OF ENERGY: THE CASE OF TURKEY
RISING TO CHALLENGES
Ali İhsan Kahraman
Public Policies, M.Sc. Thesis, 2015
Thesis Jury
Ahmet Evin (Thesis Supervisor), Meltem Müfüler Baç, Erol Katırcıoğlu, Reşat Bayer
Date &Time: August,5th , 2015 – 12:00
Place: FASS 2101
Abstract
This research asks what geopolitics of energy will look like for Turkey in a global
scale and provides an answer. The literature mainly focuses on the effects of Turkey’s current
investments to establish East-West Energy Corridor. Many studies, though, view the East-
West Energy Corridor as a corridor from East to West. From this point of view, they conclude
that Turkey will become geopolitically more important in the global energy arena in near
future.
This thesis argues that there are some mistakes in this conclusion because of two
stylized facts: 1. Turkey is increasingly dependent on energy imports and this trend is
accelerating 2. The direction of energy transportation is globally changing from East-West to
West-East. The literature gives mainly its focus to the first stylized fact and tries to decrease
energy dependency of Turkey. However, the second stylized fact hasn’t been sufficiently
discussed. Therefore, this study puts forth in Chapter 1 that the second stylized fact will have
a bigger importance for the place of Turkey in global geopolitics of energy. In Chapter 2, it
advances a theoretical framework on how to improve a solution to possible problems that can
stem from the second stylized fact. In Chapter 3, I apply the theory to Turkey’s energy
policies and determine how the theory relates to the current state of energy policies in Turkey.
Finally, in Chapter 4, I suggest three possible scenarios and discuss those in terms of the
theory advanced in Chapter 2. This thesis also contributes to the literature by stratifying
strategicl mentality in decisionmaking mechanism. This stratification helps me to understand
the path of Turkey in energy policies.