László Szerencsés completed his PhD in Law and Politics at the University of Graz specializing in international relations. His PhD dissertation explored Turkey’s foreign policy in Kosovo and Serbia (2013–2020). His work is based on extensive field research carried out in Turkey, Kosovo, and Serbia. He holds an MA in Global Political Economy from the University of Kassel, and a BA in International Relations from the Budapest Business University

In spring 2023, he was a Bluebook trainee at the European External Action Service (EEAS) Turkey/Eastmed division. In 2019, he worked as a project assistant in the project Migration-Integration-Religious Diversity (MIR) at the University of Graz. Prior to this, he interned at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington, DC, the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Budapest, and the Embassy of Hungary in Berlin.

Reconciliation and Friendship: Turkey’s Foreign Policy in Germany and Hungary

This research project is a comparative study of Turkey’s foreign policy in a centralized political system, Hungary, and in a decentralized country, Germany. The aim is to study Turkey’s foreign policy in the context of Ankara’s recent efforts toward reconciliation with the EU.

Turkey’s foreign policy has become increasingly centralized around the office of the presidency since the introduction of the presidential system in 2018. Since then, it has focused on ad hoc alliance building with similarly governed regimes abroad. Although this has led to the deterioration of relations with Germany, it has facilitated more interactions with Hungary. In light of the Turkish government’s rhetoric of reconciliation with the EU following the May 2023 elections in Turkey, whether Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs can reconcile with rules-based governing regimes, such as Germany, while maintaining close relations with more centralized, leader-driven countries, such as Hungary, remains an open question. This research takes a qualitative approach to examining this question, relying on semi-structured elite and expert interviews with diplomats, academics, and policymakers.