This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Turkey’s ‘New’ Foreign Policy in the Middle East The Civil Society Factor Harriet Ann Fildes A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of a Ph.D in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies The University of Edinburgh, 2017 Word Count: 99,792 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Abstract .....................................................................................................................................1 Declaration ................................................................................................................................2 Acknowledgments .....................................................................................................................4 Acronyms ..................................................................................................................................5 CHAPTERS Chapter One – Introduction ....................................................................................................11 Section 1 – Aims and Original Contribution ..........................................................................11 Section 2 – Why Study Civil Society in Turkey .....................................................................13 Section 3 – Defining Civil Society: Organizations and Scope ...............................................16 Section 4 – Literature and Theory...........................................................................................22 Section 5 – Research Design, Sources and Limitations ..........................................................34 Section 6 – Thesis Outline ......................................................................................................39 Chapter Two – Change and Continuity in Turkish Foreign Policy.........................................41 Section 1 – Geopolitics, the Military and the (in)Security Paradigm .....................................44 Section 1.1 – The Cold War Aftermath: New Actors and Dynamics .....................................46 Section 2 – Turkey and the Middle East: From Conflict to Cooperation ...............................49 Section 2.1 – Adventurism to Pragmatism with Northern Iraq ...............................................50 Section 2.2 – Conflict to Coordination with Syria ..................................................................55 Section 2.3 – Traditionalism to Populism with Israel .............................................................60 Section 3 – The AKP era: From a Military to a Multidimensional Foreign Policy ................63 Section 3.1 – Desecuritization and the EU: New Actors in TFP ............................................64 Section 3.2 – A Fine Balance: Relations with East and West .................................................67 Section 3 – Conclusions ..........................................................................................................70 Chapter Three – Business Associations: Tool or Actor in Turkey’s Middle East Relations? 72 Section 1 – The Evolution of Economic Interests in Foreign Relations .................................73 Section 2 – The AKP and the Business Community: Interest and Identity in TFP ................80 Section 2.1 – The Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association.............................81 2 Section 2.11 – Characteristics and aims ..................................................................................82 Section 2.12 – Activities in foreign relations ..........................................................................82 Section 2.2 – The Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association .........................85 Section 2.21 – Characteristics and aims ..................................................................................85 Section 2.22 – Activities in foreign relations ..........................................................................87 Section 2.3 – The Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists ........................91 Section 2.31 – Characteristics and aims ..................................................................................91 Section 2.32 – Activities in foreign relations ..........................................................................92 Section 2.4 – The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey ......................94 Section 2.41 – Characteristics and aims ..................................................................................95 Section 2.42 – Activities in foreign relations ..........................................................................95 Section 3 – Rapprochement with the Middle East: Impact Assessment .................................97 Section 3.1 – Rapprochement with Syria ................................................................................99 Section 3.2 – Desecuritizing Northern Iraqi Policy ..............................................................104 Section 3.3 – Economic Diplomacy and Israel/ Palestine .....................................................108 Section 4 – Conclusion .........................................................................................................115 Chapter Four – Think Tanks: The Intellectual Backbone of Turkish Foreign Policy ...........119 Section 1 – The Evolution of Think Tank Culture ................................................................121 Section 2 – Think Tanks: Influence and Strategy .................................................................126 Section 2.1 – Civilian experts ...............................................................................................127 Section 2.2 – Informing ........................................................................................................130 Section 2.3 – Agenda setting ................................................................................................133 Section 2.4 – Communication ...............................................................................................135 Section 2.5 – Ideas to influence ............................................................................................137 Section 2.6 – Actual influence? ............................................................................................141 Section 3 – Classifying Think Tanks in Turkey....................................................................142 Section 3.1 – Governmental NGOs (GNGOs) ......................................................................142 Section 3.11 – The International Strategic Research Foundation .........................................143 Section 3.12 – Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research .............................146 3 Section 3.13 – Governmental NGOs or just governmental? .................................................151 Section 3.2 – Independent NGOs ..........................................................................................152 Section 3.21 – The Marmara Foundation ..............................................................................153 Section 3.22 – Istanbul Policy Centre ...................................................................................157 Section 3.3 – Business NGOs ...............................................................................................160 Section 3.31 – TÜSIAD Foreign Policy Forum ....................................................................161 Section 3.32 – Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey ........................................164 Section 4 – The Limits of Influence......................................................................................166 Section 5 – Conclusions ........................................................................................................170 Chapter Five – Faith-based NGOs: Turkey’s Humanitarian Diplomats ...............................175 Section 1 – The Evolution of Faith-based NGOs..................................................................178 Section 2 – Humanitarian Diplomacy in Action: The State, the Community and NGOs .....185 Section 2.1 – The State .........................................................................................................186 Section 2.2 – The Community ..............................................................................................189 Section 2.3 – The NGOs .......................................................................................................192 Section 3.31 – The IHH: Arm of the AKP or autonomous actor? ........................................192 Section 3.32 – Kimse Yok Mu?: The unofficial purveyors of humanitarian diplomacy ......199 Section 3.33 – The Turkish Red Crescent: NGO of