Turkey faces trouble spots in its surrounding region that pose varying degrees of danger, which Ankara is trying to address though cooperation with and support for its immediate neighbors. Turkey has confronted many challenges and threats in the region and the country has been able to stay relatively safe from the violence sweeping the entire region, which, when one considers the state of affairs in its southern neighbors, is quite an achievement. Ankara's main diplomatic policy with its neighbors has always been based on negotiations and dialogue. The country has no other choice because of the crises and tension in the region are always at height. In 2003 Parliament was asked to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq and refused, which proved to be a prescient decision when looked at what happened afterward.Yet Turkey has faced sanctions and embargoes before, as Russia poses today. Turkey has the will and capacity to cope with these tensions as well. Even if the current tension is resolved sometime in the future, Turkey will always perceive its natural gas dependency as a sword of Damocles hanging over its head. These will hopefully make Turkish foreign policy makers more careful when developing more balanced bilateral relations with surrounding countries.Turkey is in a region in a constant state of crises. No other country can claim to be surrounded by as many emergencies as Turkey is. The PKK has always posed a serious threat to peace and security, and it still does. There have been many efforts to spark violence through instigating ethnic and religious animosity in the country's population.Throughout the more than four-year civil war in its southern neighbor Syria, Turkey, has followed a level-headed policy despite the terrorist bombings in Reyhanlı, Suruç and Ankara, and the downing of its fighter jet.Ankara, which tentatively supported the sanctions imposed on Iran due to its nuclear program, was always for lifting the embargo and Tehran reaching a deal with the international community by offering to mediate.Russia has become the only major country in Europe to militarily alter recognized borders since World War II, as it did Ukraine and Crimea, which resulted in a series of sanctions imposed on Russia. Ankara, by disapproving of Russia's actions, opted not to impose sanctions on Moscow, unlike the West, advocating for the resolution of the crisis through dialogue and negotiations instead.Russia's aggressive foreign policy and irresponsible disregard of international borders and norms is nothing new for the international community. Russia deems it appropriate to engage in mass ethnic cleansing in Syria or support the bloodthirsty regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad that is killing its own people. Ankara's foreign policy is now faced with the difficulty of adjusting to the Moscow-Damascus-Tehran axis while being overly engaged in resolving regional issues.Russia's decision to impose sanctions on Turkey, refusing to purchase Turkish tomatoes or its implied threats concerning its supply of natural gas, will only compel Turkey to seek other suppliers and markets. Israel, Azerbaijan, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Qatar are already being considered as possible sources to pick up the slack. No one should forget that Turkey is a country that has a history of standing by its decisions irrespective of the consequences.Ankara, following overly engaged diplomacy or isolationist foreign policy both carry serious burdens. Swinging from engagement to aggressive hostility results in unnecessary suffering, and Turkey has seen that engaging with undemocratic countries estranged from the world in order to give them the opportunity to be included once again in the international system carries significant cost when these countries turn rogue. The intimate relations established with the Syrian regime before the advent of the country's civil war, excessive compassion displayed for Iran suffering under nuclear sanctions or constantly warming relations with Russia, which at one time included joint planning of future economic and political ties, prove that Turkey needs to follow a more balanced foreign policy detached from entanglements.