ИСТИНА

The paper analyses the transformation of Turkey's strategic ambitions in the last decade. Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, Turkey had indexed its aspirations to a stronger role in global politics to its membership of the European Union. The European Union was expected to act as both trigger and anchor of reform that could render Turkey a rising power at the regional and global level. Nevertheless, Turkey's strategic orientations started shifting in the mid 2000s, when EU membership prospects started dimming, and Turkey's ambitions for an independent role in global politics started growing. The global financial crisis and the EU sovereign debt crisis lent credibility to views that the European Union was a "spent force" for Turkey and that it should join BRİC states in their global governance initiatives, or even the Shanghai Cooperation Organization