Abstract:
Turkey has always played a prominent role in drawing the history of the
Middle East. However, with the rise of the secular Turkish Republic under the
leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1923, Turkey chose to turn to the West to
build its strategic alliances. In this context, Turkey’s foreign policy makers were
interested, throughout the Cold War, in consolidating their relations with the western
countries in general, the USA specifically, without forgetting Turkey’s relations with
Israel.
This approach in foreign policy did not change despite the end of the Cold War,
the changes of many political and geographic conditions, and the emergence of new
challenges and opportunities.
The turning point in Turkey’s foreign policies took place in 2002, with the advent of
the “Party of Justice and Development” into power when it was asked to form the
government after its success in the parliamentary elections. This party, with its
Islamic background, drew a new scene in the state’s policies; especially in the field
of foreign policy as based on the “Historical Depth Strategy”, mainly with its current
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor Ahmet Davutoğlu. This strategy led to a
remarkable openness to the Islamic and Arab worlds, especially to neighboring
states.
To understand the behavior of the party governing Turkey since 2002, one
needs to study the AKP's background, its political behavior especially in the field of
international relations, its work for Turkey’s best interests, especially in economic
and security fields, in addition to maintaining the state’s strength and power in
different other fields, and building alliances to improve Turkey’s position and
provide it with an effective role in the international system. The very diversity of
Turkey’s foreign policy under AKP calls for a systematic school of thought to
explain the party's practices and in this context, the Realist Theory rises to the
occasion.
Hence, this theory and the behavior of the AKP in foreign policy will be studied in
this thesis, in an attempt to understand the basis of Turkey’s foreign policy today, the
path of this policy, as well as the potential benefit for all those working in the field of
international relations.
