University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations 2015 The urT kish Foreign Policy Under The uJ stice And Development Party (AKP): A Paradigm Shift? Ali Demirdas University of South Carolina Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Demirdas, A.(2015). The Turkish Foreign Policy Under The Justice And Development Party (AKP): A Paradigm Shift?. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/3712 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY UNDER THE JUSTICE AND DEVELOPMENT PARTY (AKP): A PARADIGM SHIFT ? by Ali Demirdas Bachelor of Arts Ankara University, 2003 Master of Science Suleyman Demirel University, 2009 Master of Science University of South Carolina, 2013 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina 2015 Accepted by: Robert H.Cox, Major Professor Gordon Smith, Committee Member Timothy Peterson, Committee Member Mustafa Kibaroglu, Committee Member Lacy Ford, Senior Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies © Copyright by Ali Demirdas, 2015 All Rights Reserved. ii DEDICATION I am dedicating this work to the people who supported me throughout this journey. I would like to dedicate this to Monteze Starling; without her belief in me and her support I would not have been able to return to the United States to study. I wish she could have lived to see me receive my degree. I only hope I can live up to the kind of person she believed possible for me to be. I want to thank my mother, Sukran Ormeci for bringing me into this world and supporting me throughout this journey and my sister Fatma Demirdas Calik, who always loved and encouraged me. I also want to thank my Uncle Nuri Ormeci, who helped me learn and who believed in me. Most of all, I would like to thank my daughter Marki for pushing me forward and sometime in the not-so-far future I will be helping her go through this same process for her degree. Finally, I would like to thank my dear love Susan Starling, whose infinite support helped me finish this dissertation and earn the degree. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the committee members; Dr. Robert H.Cox, who helped me find the direction I needed to go to do the research, which resulted in this body of work; Dr. Gordon Smith, who gave me a job working with him, which helped me survive my years at school in the Doctoral program; Dr. Mustafa Kibaroglu, who, though very busy with his academic works, took time out to read and advise me on my writing; Dr. Timothy Peterson, who graciously agreed to serve as a committee member and read this lengthy body of work. I would also like to thank Mariam Dekanozishvili, who helped me organize my thoughts so this would make sense to others. There are many others who, though not named, helped me along the way to research, find the information I needed and encouraged me along the way. Most of all, I would like to thank my daughter Marki Starling and the love of my life, my sweetheart, Susan Starling for devoting countless hours to reading and editing all my papers, encouraging me when I felt discouraged and helping me find the light at the end of the tunnel. Without her I am not sure I would have survived this process. iv ABSTRACT Understanding the Turkish foreign policy has become even more important in recent years given the developments surrounding the country. Furthermore, the last decade witnessed a radical change in the Turkish foreign policy making under the Justice and Development Party (AKP). This dissertation aims to explain the nature of this change based on the application of the Policy Paradigms Theory, comparing the components of the AKP foreign policy understanding with those of the Kemalist, the status que paradigm that defined the foreign policy making in Turkey well into the early 21 st century. The application of the theory provides evidence, based on the changes in ideological, institutional and practical settings, that a paradigm shift in Turkish foreign policy did indeed take place, but not in the manner of leaving the west in favor of the east but the paradigm shift was in the Kemalist understanding being replaced by the neo-Ottomanist approach. v TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ....................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ iv ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................. ix LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................1 1.1 Objectives and Significance of the Study ..........................................................1 1.2 The Outline of the Dissertation ..........................................................................4 CHAPTER 2. PARADIGM SHIFT CONCEPT IN THEORY ...........................................9 2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................9 CHAPTER 3. THE KEMALIST PARADIGM .................................................................24 3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................24 3.2 In Search of a Paradigm ...................................................................................25 3.3 The Birth of the Kemalist Paradigm in Turkey ...............................................31 3.4 Pillars of the Kemalist Ideology ......................................................................34 3.5 Goals and Priorities of Kemalist Foreign Policy .............................................42 vi 3.6 Summarizing the Main Principles of the Kemalist Foreign Policy .................53 3.7 Conclusion .......................................................................................................55 CHAPTER 4. THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION of THE KEMALIST ELITE AND THE KEMALIST BUREAUCRACY ............................................................................60 4.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................60 4.2 Creation of the Kemalist Elite..........................................................................61 4.3 The Ruling Kemalist Bureaucracy ...................................................................68 4.4 The Most Influential Kemalist Institution: The Turkish Armed Forces ..........84 4.5 Conclusion .....................................................................................................131 CHAPTER 5. RISE OF ALTERNATIVE PARADIGM; NEO-OTTOMANISM IN OZAL ERA (1983-1993) .....................................................................................137 5.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................137 5.2 Pre-Ozal Era:The 1980 Coup d’etat and Its Implications in Turkish Politics139 5.3 The 1980s and Rise of Ozal ...........................................................................142 5.4 Özal's Personality ...........................................................................................145 5.5 Ozalism in Foreign Policy .............................................................................158 5.6 The Gulf War: Return of Activism and Özalism vs. Kemalist Bureaucracy .170 5.7 Conclusion .....................................................................................................177 CHAPTER 6. THE ERBAKAN ERA (1996-1997) ........................................................182 6.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................182 6.2 The Rise of Political Islam in Turkey ............................................................183 6.3 Rise of Erbakan: The Islamist Victory of the Mid-1990s ..............................186 6.4 Turkish Foreign Policy during the WP Era ....................................................190 6.5 The WP’s Islamic, Anti-Kemalist Rhetoric ...................................................205 6.6 The Kemalist State Machine Steps in: The ‘Post-Modern’ Coup .................207 vii 6.7 Conclusion .....................................................................................................214 CHAPTER 7. THE JUSTICE AND DEVELOPMENT PARTY ERA ...........................219 7.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................219 7.2 The Rising of the Alternative Elite: “Islamist Calvinists” .............................219 7.3 The Islamic Calvinism and Turkish Politics ..................................................223