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Over the last two decades, summits have gained great importance in developing relations with African countries and they have become useful tools to understand intersecting roadmaps on the continent. China, India, Japan, the United States, European countries and Russia conducted various summits and business forums targeting to develop their political, economic and military relations with Africa. In this vein, FOCAC (Forum on China–Africa Cooperation), European Union–Africa Business and Investment Summits, Japan's Africa Development Summits and Russia–Africa Summit provide some details of these powers' Africa policy. Turkey has also emerged as a new actor and summit organizer in Africa since it opened a new page for Africa in its foreign policy in 2005. After being a strategic partner to the African Union in 2008, Turkey has conducted three Turkey–Africa summits, Istanbul (2008), Malabo (2014) and Istanbul (2021), to form its roadmap in Africa. This work aims to analyse the role of Africa–Turkey summits in the development of Turkey's Africa policy and its relationship with African countries. The paper looks at all declarations comprehensively to evaluate Turkey's foreign policy discourse on Africa. Moreover, it examines Turkey's Africa policy implementations and achievements on the continent through the lens of summits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey's defence industries have shown significant development in recent years. But the limited domestic market and the financial crisis created sustainability problems for the industry. To increase its arms sales, Turkey began to search for potential markets to expand, and Africa emerged as an excellent market to enter. Turkey had already invested in Africa through its multi-track diplomacy, a necessary condition for arms sales. While the multi-track diplomacy and increased engagement helped Turkey's arms exports, they are insufficient to explain the recent rise of Turkish arms exports, which have been showing an upward trend since 2021. This paper argues that the increase in arms exports is the function of multi-track diplomacy, no-strings-attached arms export policy and the demonstration effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically investigates the impact of Turkey's embassies on trade with sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It uses a panel data set that covers 28 African countries for the period of 2002 to 2020 in order to measure if the opening of an embassy increases Turkey's exports to relevant countries. The study found a positive relationship between exports and diplomatic representation via embassies. More precisely, the empirical results indicate that the presence of an embassy in an African country increases Turkey's exports to this country by 108%. The study also found that the presence of business councils has the same positive effect on Turkey's export performance albeit at a moderate level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1950s was an era when Turkish-US relations were developing in various arenas. In addition to hard power instruments, such as NATO membership, the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Aid, elements of soft power were also being used to promote the relationship between the two states. One element of this latter power was jazz which became tool of US public diplomacy used to export its cultural values. This paper explores how jazz was used as such in Turkey–US relations in the 1950s. The original aspect of this article lies in its dealing with the influence of jazz music, a relatively little mentioned soft power element in Turkey–US relations of this period. The main finding of the article may be conceptualized as follows: Turkey's relationship with the US was based not only on economic and military interests, but also cultural ties between the two which were also crucial to strengthening their bilateral relations. In this context, musicians were key agents of cultural diplomacy with their music and songs legitimizing a new and different 20th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, particularly since 2002, relations between Iran and Turkey have been on the rise and generally expanding. The aim of this paper is to analyse and clarify the reasons for the sustainability of the two countries' relations while undergoing intermittent eruptions of disputes over the years. In other words, the main question is: why have Iran and Turkey, with their political frictions, routinely embraced rapprochement and collaboration in recent decades? Accordingly, the hypothesis proposed is that a key reason for the ongoing cooperation between Tehran and Ankara in different fields, is the rationale of geopolitical complementarity engendering their security needs in broad meaning, particularly energy security and natural gas. Whilst the logic also applies to water security, both states attach greater importance to border security and energy. In short, their common geopolitical destiny over-rides individual state preferences. To examine this hypothesis, Barry Buzan's theory based on a broad definition of security as well as regional security complex has been deployed through descriptive analytics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Turkey, administrative decentralization is a political issue rather than a technical one. the central government follows up centralization policies associated with intensive administrative supervision with three mechanisms according to "who governs the municipality": The opposition municipalities, especially from the main opposition party, CHP (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi) are systematically supervised by the inspectors of the Interior Ministry while appointed trustees (kayyim or kayyum) are given control in the municipalities governed by the pro-Kurdish party (HDP). The existing literature on decentralization process in Turkey mostly insists on its normative, administrative, and historical dimensions,[7] However, considering the political dimension of decentralization in Turkey, this paper offers a new perspective to elucidate the failure of the decentralization policies initiated by the AKP governments. A striking return to centralization policy was deployed by the AKP government that can also be considered as path dependence to the centralizing tradition of the Turkish State and is actively in use to preserve the asymmetric position of the state in relation to local authorities. According to some CHP politicians, the government has been orchestrating an attempt to replace Imamoglu with an appointed trustee of the government before the general election in 2023.[54] As can be seen, decentralization dynamics in Turkey are extremely politicized. [Extracted from the article]

A significant part of the academic discussions on Turkey's foreign policy includes Turkey's soft power capacity. The Justice and Development Party has used soft power more extensively than any other previous government in the history of the Turkish Republic. Turkish soft power consists of both direct state soft power, through its diplomatic expansions, and massive non-state outreach endeavours via Turkish cultural, economic, and welfare non-state actors, as well as Turkish media and TV popularity around the world. Although Asia comes third in Turkey's diplomatic circle, after the Balkans and Africa, it has come into policy focus as Turkey expands its trade, as well as political and cultural exchanges with the Asian continent. This paper investigates Turkey's soft power initiatives in Asia in the form of diplomatic missions, educational foundations, entertainment, and commercial investments. This paper argues that Turkey's soft power initiatives and public diplomatic capacity through state-managed resources are more limited and insufficient compared to its non-state resources, due to the latter's civic nature and organic engagements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the Turkish voting preferences in the UN General Assembly during the AK Party era between 2002 and 2020. It seeks to understand as to whether there is a congruence between Turkey's critical view of international society as epitomized by Tayyip Erdoğan's motto, 'The World is Bigger Than Five', and the way Turkish representatives voted during the same period in the UN General Assembly on questions such as nuclear disarmament, self-determination, search for a new international order, and human rights. Based on primary materials, this paper concludes that there exists an undisputable contradiction between Turkey's anti-establishment posture and behavioural attitude towards the outside world since 2002 on the one hand and it's voting orientation in the UN General Assembly on the other. The latter is largely the outcome of the 'Europeanization' of Turkish foreign policy based on Turkey's candidacy for EU membership and its NATO commitments. Hence, during the period under investigation, Turkey was broadly allied to the European position in the context of its voting pattern in the UN General Assembly which was conspicuous with its aloofness towards calls for substantial changes intended to bring about a more just and peaceful international order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2011, almost four million refugees were welcomed in Turkey. This paper aims to explore how these people are included/excluded from the society through the construction of the self/the other. The paper argues that studying the media representations of these refugees in Turkish print media reveal the wider politics of nationalism in the country. To study the wider politics of nationalism, I collected newspaper articles from pro-government and anti-government papers from 2014 to 2018. This data not only reveals the inclusion/exclusion of these people from the definitions of 'nation' but also reveals the tension between AKP and Kemalist ideologies in Turkey. The paper discusses these discourses through 'secular' and 'humanitarian' nationalisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By concentrating on the period 1933–1940, this paper argues that Turkey's decision to opt for neutrality during the Second World War was not part of a calculated long run strategy, but a abrupt reaction to the unexpected fall of France in the summer of 1940. To explain and expand these proposals, the paper summarizes Turkey's economic relations with Britain and Germany during the 1930s and the state of its armed forces. This is followed by a discussion of the basic strategic ideas of both sides, and the military planning which preceded the signature of the tripartite alliance treaty between Britain, France and Turkey in October 1939. It closes with an outline of the collapse of the treaty in 1940, with an analysis of its serious weaknesses and their causes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The volume of Turkish aid and its geographic coverage have undergone a process of change following the Arab Uprisings and the foiled coup d'état of July 15. This article primarily addresses the latter event, as with the former's influence foreign aid relations became more tight-knit with Turkey's immediate neighbours yet fell apart in areas such as sub-Saharan Africa. Considering the period between 2013 and 2018, this paper seeks the key determinants behind Turkish foreign aid behaviour in sub-Saharan Africa by asking whether the (non)existence of Gülenist schools in recipient states exerted agency in the disbursement of Turkey's aid flow. Based on bilateral foreign aid disbursement and the Turkish Maarif Foundation's educational landscape in sub-Saharan Africa, this paper has found that although the recipient state's cooperation with Turkey on the matter of Gülenist schools is a variable of moderate importance in gauging the volume of Turkish aid, there is no monolithic Turkish foreign aid orientation towards the countries collaborating with Turkish authorities to transfer the management of these schools and those that do not. This orientation has been firmly motivated by humanitarianism and has thus assured continuity in the context of humanitarian aid following July 15. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early 1950s, Western powers attempted to establish a regional alliance system with the participation of regional states to secure their interests. The Middle East Command (MEC) was the first project designed and imposed by the West. However, all actors in the region had different positions and policies towards such organizations. In this paper, the global and regional dynamics and developments affecting the creation of the MEC will be analysed from different perspectives using primary and secondary sources. The MEC project remained in the shadow of its successor, the well-known Baghdad Pact, and has received significantly less scholarly attention. By the same token, there is little literature on the MEC project and the existing literature is limited to the Western powers and Turkey. New studies reflecting the policies and positions of both global and regional actors are vital for the analysis of the Cold War in the Middle East. This paper mainly argues that global and local actors existed in two different worlds preventing their interests and priorities from overlapping. Therefore, under these circumstances, the MEC project and other alliances in the region failed and caused a tension shaping regional politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of this paper is to shed light on Turkey's power status as a rising state in the wider region of the South-Eastern Mediterranean and test its strategies to change the balance of power in this region. In doing so, we draw heavily on a novel conceptual framework of Itzkowitz Shifrinson (2020a) that articulates alternative strategies of rising states towards declining great powers based on specific goals and means formulating those strategies. We argue that, given the relative decline of great powers in the region of the South-East Mediterranean, Turkey is a rising power with a strategic vision to maximize its aspirations for leadership and control, and, where possible, alter the status quo. Towards this end, Turkey is employing a broad foreign policy agenda in several policy areas based on a variety of alternative strategies. Through this analysis, we examine and demonstrate the different strategies of Turkey in changing the power balance in three important geopolitical spheres of influence: a) Balkans-Middle East-Caucasus, b) Black Sea-Adriatic-Eastern Mediterranean-Red Sea-Persian Gulf and c) Εurope-N. Africa-S. Asia- Central Asia. Turkey's regional strategies have a considerable impact in the security context vis-à-vis the main great powers in the South-Eastern Mediterranean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In competitive authoritarian regimes, forming a pre-electoral coalition (PEC) provides a mean for opposition parties to defeat the incumbent party. In Turkey, the ruling Justice and Development Party initiated a PEC by forming the People's Alliance with two other parties. Like the opposition in other competitive authoritarian regimes, Turkey's opposition parties also formed a PEC, namely the Nation Alliance. Looking at the political affinity of these parties by using their election manifestos and Chapel Hill Expert Survey (CHES) data, the paper argues that while the People's Alliance was formed by ideologically close parties, the Nation Alliance was composed of ideologically distant parties, whose main aim, under a competitive authoritarian regime, was to prevent the incumbent from gaining a parliamentary majority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the roles of gross domestic spending on research and development (R&D) and gross capital formation in the innovation process and detects their contribution to this improvement. The analysis is conducted for Turkey for the period 1990-2017 using annual time-series data. Our findings suggest a bidirectional causal link between all variables of interest and prove that R&D can be a significant driving force for the Turkish innovation process. Most of the research and development activities in Turkey have been performed by universities. Herein, it is of key importance for the Turkish government to increase public expenditure, especially on education, since human capital plays an important role in building innovation capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing agency of non-state actors empowered grassroots diplomacy between Turks and Armenians until the centennial genocide commemorations in 2015. However, rising authoritarianism in Turkey resulted in the clampdown of non-governmental actors, thus, further restricting room for engagement in post 2015. Under the hostile environment for non-state actors an Armenian pop song, Mi Gna (Don't Leave) by Super Sako, gained mainstream access in the Turkish music market. This paper contextualizes that unintentional actions and music can be catalysers in complimenting the long-term policy goals by permeating into the public sphere, thus providing space for cross-cultural awareness in undemocratic regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of Turkey–Soviet Russia relations is one of the most controversial topics in Turkish historiography. The controversy was largely a product of the Cold War interpretations when the USSR and Turkey were in hostile camps. This article shows the Bolsheviks' reappraisal and readjustment of their policy towards Turkey during the transition of Turkey from a war of independence to the foundation of a New Turkey in conditions of peace. In doing so, the paper focuses specifically on Ambassador Surits' detailed reports on Turkey in 1923, including his policy recommendations. In this way the article attempts to contribute to our conception of the essence of Soviet–Turkey relations by taking into account Ambassador Surits' reports as the primary sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the Turkish political parties’ attitudes towards the country’s European Union (EU) membership. It intends to analyse the concerns and demands of the political parties as the parliamentary debates shape government policies. The paper considers the parties’ positions in the parliamentary power matrix (incumbency or opposition), their ideological tendencies and electoral concerns; and their relations with the social classes, all of which influence the party strategies and policies. It begins with outlining the politicized social cleavages and the characteristics of the party system. Next, it discusses the foreign policy orientation of the parties, their perceptions on Europe and the EU, the preferred type of integration with the EU and the ways they interpret the policies of the EU towards Turkey’s membership. The paper finds that the secular social democratic parties have been the strongest supporters of membership mostly due to their historical pro-Western tendencies and their relations with republican big business. Their economic policies have been modelled on the European welfare state provisions. The nationalist parties have been consistently sceptical for cultural and nationalist reasons. The most interesting case emerges as the pro-Islamists, whose ideological reserve and scepticism disappear only temporarily and for practical reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the impact the European Union (EU) accession process has had on Turkish political parties—the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP)—as far as their internal structures and intra-party distribution of power are concerned. The paper contends that political parties in Turkey have not only been immune to any organizational adaptation that may have resulted from the accession process, but in the past decade, they have become increasingly de-Europeanized. This insularity from Europeanization impulses can be attributed to Turkey’s personalized political system and the ineffectiveness of the parliamentary institutions responsible for EU policy, especially the EU Harmonization Committee. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper probes into the underlying factors for the exceptionally slow progress of mass privatizations in Turkey until the first decade of the 21st century. Challenging the mainstream political economy perspectives which often interpret Turkish ‘exceptionalism’ by focusing either on rationally motivated actors articulating their interests or on flaws in the institutional infrastructure as decisive impediments, the paper emphasizes the role of ideology, and particularly of national developmentalism, as a long-term, deep-rooted structural dynamic shaping the fate of privatization attempts in the 1980s and 1990s. While they clearly triggered a strong nationalist backlash, large-scale privatizations could still be realized at a particular historical juncture when the confluence of three deep-seated social fault lines—Turkey’s integration into the global economy, the accession process to the European Union and the rise of a new bourgeoisie—prevailed over a strong ideological mindset that prevented for decades the institutionalization of a market economy in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article critically examines the role of Islamist state discourse and policies in the Kurdish region of Turkey. Academic works on Islamism often address settings where Islamist movements and political parties operate as anti-colonial and oppositional entities. However, this article discusses how Islamist ideology has become an instrument of governmentality to maintain and legitimize colonial rule in the Kurdish region of Turkey under the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party, AKP). After contextualizing the Kurdish issue as an internal colonization process since the beginning of the Turkish Republic, the paper focuses on the AKP period to analyse the use of an Islamic discourse of unity and brotherhood and attempts to foster the rise of a loyal conservative civil society among the Kurds. Thus, it argues that the internal colonial paradigm remains fully relevant to analysis of the Kurdish issue during the last decade and that neoliberal Islamist governmentality should be understood as a strategy complementary to repression, to increase popular support for the government and marginalize opposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the Turkish historiographical encounter with the Armenian genocide in the 1970s and 1980s. It shows how denialism was institutionalized by the 1980s by the post-1980 junta and its academic–political–security complex as a response to the revival of the obscured memories of 1915 after decades of oblivion due to the rise of the Armenian efforts to create an awareness regarding the genocide. Hence, the paper historicizes Turkish denialism. Furthermore, not seeing Turkish denialism as a monolithic discourse, it identifies three modes of Turkish denialism, left wing, right wing and centrist, all entrenched in different ideological sets. The paper also discusses the Turkish national security establishment’s strategies to counter Armenian activism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper aims to challenge simplifications on race and racism in contemporary Turkish society. In doing so, it draws a macro-historical context wherein the racist component of the Turkish national identity had been shaped. The paper traces the emergence of the core racist elements at the beginning of the 20th century within the ideology propagated by the organization of the Turkish Hearths (Türk Ocakları). The Turkish History Thesis with its emphasis on ‘race’ attempted to promote not only an affiliation but also a common ancestry between Turkish and Western civilization. These arguments were backed by commissioning research carried out in the fields of Anthropology, Archaeology and Linguistics. The main argument of this paper is that the racist components of the national identity in Turkey have been the product of a Eurocentric understanding of world history by consecutive nationalist leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the dynamics of making group rights claims using individual human rights discourse in the Turkish public sphere. Group claims that invoke universalist discourses are paradoxical. While some groups demand group rights, they frame these demands in terms of universal human rights claims. This paper highlights this paradox by looking at the dynamics of making group rights claims using individual human rights discourse with an empirical case study from Turkey. The study looks at the case of Mazlumder which is an Islamist human rights association in Turkey. The paper uses the qualitative case study method based on in-depth interviews with members of the group. Three themes that highlight the paradox emerge from the research: the emphasis on the rights-based discourse, their anti-state rhetoric and their interpretation of democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper scrutinizes why the Western European type of social democracy has not developed in Turkey. Both the historical backdrop and current constraints on the development of social democracy are examined. This paper argues that social democracy's failure in Turkey has stemmed from two reasons. On the one hand, historical and structural constraints that obstructed social democracy should be taken into account. On the other, social democratic movements suffered from an agency question. The leadership of the political parties, which defined themselves as centre-left entities, had a number of chances to build a ‘genuine social democracy’, but they chose alternative policy paths based on identity politics. This phenomenon too prevented the development of social democracy. The CHP (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, Republican People's Party) is the focal point of the paper since it has always been the main subject in the debates over social democracy in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the Turkish economy within a comparative historical framework. In light of a thorough discussion of Turkish economic crises in the post-1980 period, the paper explores Turkey's contemporary strengths and weaknesses in the global economic arena by comparing it with its peers and developed nations. The paper also highlights Turkey's extant economic vulnerabilities, especially its current account deficit, volatile international capital flows and ongoing banking sector problems. Along with other policy recommendations regarding these vulnerabilities, the paper proposes the introduction of capital controls to enhance economic institutions and cope with future hardships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the surge of neo-nationalism and conspiratorial thinking in tandem with the rise of the Turkish revisionist historiography highly critical of Turkish nationalism and its legacy in the 20th century in the 2000s. The paper also examines the demonization of these historiographical deviations by proponents of Kemalist nation-statism. Because these revisionists challenged nation-statist assumptions, such as the innocence of the Turkish nation and its self-victimization, their academic output was perceived as blasphemy against the common values of Turkish society, further fomenting neo-nationalist sentiment. Thus, the paper argues that the genesis of a revisionist historiography and the rising popularity of conspiracy theories among the public cannot be disassociated from each other.1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, regional economic integration in the Middle East continues to remain at an unusually low level compared to other regions of the world. This is especially problematic because traditionally, regional integration has long been seen as an effective tool for encouraging regional peace, stability and prosperity, with also the added expectation that economic growth may also help or facilitate transition to democracy. This paper asks the question of whether the Arab uprisings might provide a new environment in which Turkey and the USA, together with the European Union, could cooperate to bring about some degree of regional economic integration. The paper discusses Turkey's increasing economic engagement of its neighbourhood since the end of the Cold War and argues that this experience constitutes a good basis for cooperation, even if there remain a number of challenges stemming from Turkey as well as the Middle East. As much as these challenges may seem insurmountable, initiating a tri-lateral dialogue is of critical importance as the rewards of regional integration in the Middle East in terms of stability, peace and prosperity would be huge and of a ‘win-win’ nature for Turkey, for the EU, for the USA, and of course for the region. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Why do some insurgencies attain their ultimate goal of statehood while others never do? Although explanations for insurgency success based on political will, natural resources, geography or diaspora involvement have advanced our understanding of the conditions under which insurgencies are likely to succeed in pursuing their statehood agenda, they have not adequately addressed the critical role of the major external actors (e.g. USA, UK, European Union, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)) and how significant these actors are in shaping the fate of many insurgencies around the world. In an effort to develop a model that explains insurgency outcome, this paper argues that external support or lack thereof is likely to shape insurgency outcome. When major external actors support insurgency, the movement is likely to succeed in pursuing its statehood agenda. Otherwise, the movement is likely to reconsider its political agenda if it lacks the necessary external support from major actors. This argument is demonstrated by a comprehensive study and comparison of two cases of insurgency, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of the paper is to investigate the Gezi Park Protests in Turkey from the perspective of terror management theory (TMT). The Gezi Park Protests started at the end of May 2013 to defend the destruction of a small park. The protests started with environmentalist reactions and acquired a political nature afterwards. The roles of social media and humour are also discussed in relation to the different dimensions of the Gezi Park Protests. TMT, more specifically the mortality salience hypothesis, is used to explain these protests, since they include both the concrete and abstract forms of mortality. The concrete forms of death were the death of trees and the death of protesters themselves. The abstract forms of death, on the other hand, were the death of lifestyle from the protesters’ perspective and death of exercise power from the government’s side. Three necessary conditions for an alternative experimental manipulation in TMT studies are discussed in relation to the Gezi Park Protests. It is concluded that the protests provided a concrete and real-life example of TMT. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the 1990s, there has been a global proliferation of transnational organized crime (TOC). Turkey, as a transit site between the East and the West, has been one of the routes through which organized crime groups transport illicit goods in collaboration with other networks of crime. This paper investigates TOC in Turkey and maps out Turkey's role as a transit country in smuggling and trafficking. The paper also deals with Turkey's contribution to international efforts in combating TOC in light of its EU membership process. The European Commission's annual reports on Turkey's progress towards EU membership that highlight the achievements as well as the shortcomings of Turkey in combating TOC are presented. The paper argues that Turkey has introduced successful reforms and expanded its institutional capacities due to the progress it has achieved in the specific area of combating TOC, as evidenced by the EU progress reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a decade of strong growth, mainstream economists and financial markets have recently escalated their discussion of Turkey's economic ‘fragility’. Contrary to their focus on ‘excessive current account deficits’, the key to understanding Turkey's condition is the foreign capital inflows that facilitate and promote these deficits, and the extent of hot money in the inflows. This paper documents this central fragility and its current explosion. It also contributes to the debate with a detailed economic and operational definition of hot money in Turkey, not present in the existing literature. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The challenges of the Arab Spring and of Syrian unrest in particular have generated scholarly debate on Ahmet Davutoğlu's broadly appreciated ‘zero problems with neighbours’ principle in Turkish foreign policy. This paper presents an assessment of the viability of the Davutoğlu vision and the changing parameters of foreign policy in a new era. It concludes with a discussion of a crucial question: ‘Is this the end of Davutoğlu's foreign policy vision?’ [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The massive demonstrations of June 2013 against the Turkish government constitute a new element in the country's social reality. After many years, new dynamics have risen to the surface, claiming the ‘new’, outside the context of the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) hegemony. At the same time, these demonstrations offer the opportunity to re-evaluate political power in Turkey. With that in mind, this paper aims to decode the perceptions and strategies that the AKP have developed on issues such as democracy and the transformation of public space, and the way that these are related to the ideological background of historic sites such as Istanbul and Gezi Park. It also seeks to address the protests of June 2013 as an opportunity to understand the content given by the AKP on concepts of strategic importance such as democracy, the nation–millet, urban transformation and the Imperial–Islamic heritage of Istanbul. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the credibility of the European Union (EU) conditionality for Turkey has significantly weakened after 2005, compliance with the EU requirements has become less likely. However, we observe continuing reforms in the fight against corruption and minority rights, which is rather puzzling. Given the limited impact of the EU incentives, this paper brings back the ‘domestic’ into the analysis by exploring the role of various domestic actors, such as Turkish state elites, civil society and the media. Yet, as the empirical evidence suggests, policy change in the fight against corruption and minority rights has been driven by the domestic agenda of the governing party, the Justice and Development Party, and its political preferences based on strategic calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]