“There cannot be a corridor without Türkiye!”:Türkiye’s polyalignment strategy in pursuit of strategic autonomy

Türkiye has responded to great power rivalry by attempting to maintain close ties with competing powers. According to many scholars, this affords Ankara a measure of “strategic autonomy,” and we contribute to this scholarship by highlighting the spatial component of Türkiye’s foreign policy. Indeed, Türkiye’s foreign and domestic policy is geared towards becoming a ‘central country’ in transnational networks and mediating between east and west. We interpret this as polyalignment, and we draw attention to its material basis and how it manifests spatially. Ankara seeks to concretize its polyaligned status through the establishment of two transnational transportation corridors – the Zangezur Corridor, recently renamed the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP), and the Iraq Development Road. The extent to which Türkiye will realize its spatial objectives is uncertain because a host of states seek to instantiate competing visions in the complex politics surrounding Eurasian integration. Türkiye’s attempt to ‘lock in’ nodal status in transnational networks is partly driven by the fear that it will be bypassed by the India - Middle East - Europe Economic Corridor. This case illustrates that while states pursue connectivity strategies characterized by polyalignment, they are subject to competing initiatives of other states.