A look upon Turkey’s Future Nuclear Weapons Policy

On 4th September 2019, President Erdoğan announced that it was unacceptable for nuclear-armed states to forbid Ankara from obtaining its own nuclear weapons. With this statement, many questions sparked upon Turkey’s motivations for a potential nuclear weapons programme. Turkey, as an early signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, is obliged to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and to further the goals of nuclear disarmament. It is, however, allowed to cooperate in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

While this statement underlines Erdoğan’s willingness to be more independent on its defence strategy rather than staying under radar and cooperate, Turkey’s domestic policies upon nuclear industry isn’t so clear. With the rising tension upon Iran’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and Israel’s continuous allegations upon unofficial nuclear arms threat; Turkey is inevitably a part of this proliferation question.

In this regard, this paper aims to look upon Turkey’s past nuclear policies that have been taken by governments, as well as a future probability of becoming a proliferation domino after President Erdoğan’s statement…