Search

The main argument of this paper is that Turkey had close relations with Middle Eastern states during the Atatürk period, which is contrary to the literature that claims the opposite because of Turkey's Western-oriented ideology. The article asks why Turkey as a Western-oriented state sought to have close relations with Middle Eastern states. To answer this question, the article uses discourse analysis focusing on Middle Eastern leaders' visits as represented in Turkish public discourse. Accordingly, it proposes two main answers. Firstly, the paper argues that the new state's relations with Middle Eastern countries played an important role in legitimation of its Westernization projects in the eyes of its citizens. Secondly, the Turkish state marginalized rival political discourses, mainly Islamism, by proving that even Muslim majority countries wanted to imitate modern Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Since the rise of the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP), Islam has come to play a more prominent role in public and political spheres in Turkey. This paper draws on ethnographic data gathered in Istanbul and Diyarbakir between 2013 and 2015 to highlight Kurdish attitudes to Islam. Following the electoral success of the AKP amongst Kurds in the general election of 2007, Kurdish actors have sought to incorporate Islamic sensibilities into their political offering in order to appeal to Kurdish constituents. Amid the AKP's recent authoritarian turn and instrumentalization of religion, and the rise of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), many Kurds have sought to redefine their relationship with Islam to clearly demarcate distinctly Kurdish religious and political spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses Turkey’s responses to the Arab uprisings in the context of its larger foreign policy transformation and regional aspirations. The AKP government seized the uprisings as an opportunity to increase its influence in the region by assigning itself a central role in the transition processes in various countries. In the process, however, Turkey faced a number of setbacks and reversals. Comparing the cases of Libya, Syria, and Egypt, the paper argues that Turkey’s efforts to advance regime change in these sites were marked by inconsistency and incoherence. Furthermore, the paper argues that this trajectory of reactions can be explained only by taking both ideational and domestic factors into account. Despite the shortcomings of Turkey’s actions, however, the article concludes that Turkey has consolidated itself as a regional actor, albeit a controversial one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the Turkish export and import flows with regard to regional clusters (RCs) and bilateral trade costs (BTCs) by using a panel data gravity model. We study the role of RCs and BTCs in two complementary parts: in the first part, we use an unbalanced panel data for 180 countries over the period 1960–2012, compiled from the DOTS database. We extend these estimations by running the data at four different time intervals, each representing different economic or political regimes in Turkey. In the second part, we repeat the same exercise at sectoral level for 176 countries over the period 1994–2010, using the BACI database. Aggregate estimates show that the gravity model is very effective in explaining the export and import flows of Turkey and that all close-by regions, including EU27, have a significant impact on trade flows of Turkey. We also find that the EU Customs Union has a negative effect on Turkish exports and a positive effect on imports. Estimates at selected time intervals reinforce aggregate estimates and sectoral level analyses indicate that while some regions contribute positively in all or the majority of sectors, others contribute negatively or produce mixed results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Turkey has thus far been generally neglected in most IR studies on power categorisations, such as middle or middle-range power, regional power or rising/emerging power, despite its rising regional power status in the past decade. This paper attempts to understand Turkey’s regional power together with its rising power status using an integral approach. In doing so, it empirically tests whether or not Turkey fits Daniel Flemes’s ‘regional power’ category, which seems to be proposing a more complete and integral framework through the fulfilment of four basic preconditions: claim to leadership; possession of necessary power resources (material and ideational); employment of material, institutional and discursive foreign policy instruments; and acceptance of leadership by third parties. Based upon these analytical tools, the article will discuss Turkey’s performance in creating a regional impact in its neighbouring regions of the Middle East, the Balkans and the Black Sea and Caucasus. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper aims to analyze the impact of ideology and foreign policy of Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party, JDP) on incoming tourist volume to Turkey from the Middle East. Turkey has been one of the destinations enjoyed rapid tourism growth for the past 15 years both in number of arrivals and tourism income. Meanwhile almost all major Muslim countries in the region increased their share on arrivals to Turkey. JDP, the party in power in Turkey since 2003, is a conservative party, which seeks for close relations with the Middle East region, as part of its ideological attitude and new foreign policy outlook. Therefore, Turkey is an ideal domain to study the relationship between ideology, foreign policy and international tourist arrivals. The paper argues that the conservative identity and new foreign policy of the JDP resulted in a significant increase on incoming tourist volume from the Middle East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The argument of this paper is that the new foreign policy orientation of Turkey under the AKP (Justice and Development Party) government is a constitutive component of a new nationalist project, constructed and carried out by the AKP over the last decade. The article expounds the ways in which the AKP has reformulated the notions of nation, national history, homeland and national interest and demonstrates the role foreign policy has played in this reformulation. Our point of departure will be the patterns we have observed in the statements and political practices of the AKP government and its officials, particularly the incumbent minister of foreign affairs Ahmet Davutoğlu, whose book, Strategic Depth, presents a more systematic explanation of the major principles and assertions of AKP nationalism and foreign policy. We will also argue that after the Gezi protests in June 2013 this new conception of nation and nationalism has faced with a deep crisis, which has also exacerbated the problem of pursuing an ambitious foreign policy strategy in international arena. [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 official visit to Turkey of the Soviet Premier Aleksey Nikolayevich Kosygin was important in terms of reviving relations between the two countries during the Cold War period. The visit of the Premier Kosygin and of the accompanying Soviet delegation, held in 20-27 December 1966, found extensive coverage in the Turkish press. The focal point of the talks was the relations between the two countries and the problems related to the international agenda. In particular, Czechoslovakia's sale of weapons, a Soviet ally, to the Greek Cypriot leader Makarios, and the solution of the Cyprus problem were some of the main topics of the negotiations. Despite certain disagreements on international issues, the visit of the Soviet Premier, in the Cold War conjuncture, played a role in the revitalization of bilateral relations. The Turkish Press followed with great interest the Premier Kosygin's visit to Turkey. Utilising the coverage of mainstream newspapers like Cumhuriyet, Ulus, Tercüman, Akşam, Dünya, Yeni Tanin and Vatan, the paper used the content analysis method to evaluate the reflections of the visit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on the 'moral' dimensions of Turkey's 'new' foreign policy as it became manifest after the AK Party rose to power in 2002. This article first discusses 'ethics' and 'justice' in the context of international politics and states' foreign policy. Based on the findings regarding these key issues, I argue that, in the course of 2002-2014, Turkish behavioral posture within the prevailing international order was strongly colored by ethical concerns and the search for a more just and peaceful international order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cadernos Argentina Brasil is the property of Editora da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (EdUERJ) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

European officials veer towards exceptionalism in their policy communications concerning the EU’s global role, particularly in terms of African development. This article poses a rejoinder to such tendencies through examination of the rise of ‘virtuous power Turkey’ in Africa. It examines how Turkish elites constructed a moralised ‘neo-Ottoman’ foreign policy in wake of stalled EU accession. It then underscores how elites framed humanitarian interventions in sub-Saharan Africa in contrast to the perceived neo-colonialism of an EU ‘other’. In this vein, the article explores the meaning of normative ‘neo-Ottomanism’ for ostensible beneficiaries in Africa, for the EU, and for Turkey itself. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this article is to provide an insider’s perspective on the mutually constitutive interplay between Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the organizational culture of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the last two decades. It is argued that the introduction of ICTs to work processes in the Ministry has been a set of reform attempts of senior bureaucrats to adapt the organization to the rapidly changing socio-political environment and to ensure the dominance of the Ministry in the information field of Turkish foreign policy. Reforms have targeted organizational behaviours manifesting the basic assumptions of the organizational culture, namely “hierarchy”, “secrecy”, “oneway communication with the public” and “the notion of the survival of the state”. This case study indicates that the influence of ICTs is most profound in the communication style of foreign service officials, which has gradually been changing from one-way to two-way communication with the public. ICTs have also enabled foreign service officials to develop collaborative cross-agency relations with other public and private organizations. The article concludes that these changes have transformed the Ministry into a more efficient and credible public organization in foreign policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main objectives of the Turkish foreign policy is to integrate Turkey in the European Union. Over the last decades Turkey has unsuccessfully tried to join European Union. For various reasons (economic, political and social), European leaders have blocked the attempts of Turkey to join European Union. There is a widespread belief in Europe that Turkish membership poses a threat to the stability and security of the European Union. This article explains why Europe needs Turkey and why Turkey's integration into Euro-Atlantic structures should not be seen as a danger but as an opportunity for economic progress and development of Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the evolution of Turkey's humanitarian diplomacy as an example of the new humanitarianism associated with emerging countries. It discusses both the promise as well as the challenges of the new humanitarianism. It then introduces the idea of "middle power activism" in international affairs as one way to understand Turkey's behavior. This lens is then used to identify the aspects of Turkey's behavior that are more likely to endure as contributions to global humanitarian affairs. It identifies state-centered humanitarian aid, regional approaches, and the supplementing of humanitarian aid with political and economic goals as aspects of the Turkish approach likely to endure and to appeal to other emerging actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes that Turkey's foreign policy towards Iraq changed radically after 2007, in response to external challenges and domestic developments. The article analyses how Turkey's role in Iraq has changed on two different levels: firstly, in terms of increased activism and diplomatic engagement, and secondly, in terms of its increased economic involvement, using trade and foreign direct investment as foreign policy tools. These two different modes of engagement have transformed Turkey into a visible player in Iraq. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]