Meliha Benli Altunışık

From Distant Neighbors to Partners? Changing Syrian-Turkish Relations

The growth of cooperative relations between Syria and Turkey, after the two countries came to the brink of war in 1998, has been a major development in the Middle East. This article examines both the reasons behind increasing ties between the two countries and the new challenges this rapprochement is facing due to the rapidly shifting international context. It argues that although systemic factors have been crucial in setting up the parameters of the bilateral relationship, these factors gain meaning through the complexities of domestic settings. The US policy of regime change and the Iraq War of 2003 and its aftermath are taken as the main regional and international factors influencing relations between the two countries since 1998. Domestic factors like the process of regime consolidation in Syria under Bashar and rising nationalism, the Kurdish issue, and the coming to power of the Justice and Development Party in Turkey constitute the main lenses through which these systemic factors are evaluated and policy outcomes projected.

Worldviews and Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East

Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East has become highly contested in the last two decades. The changes in the international and domestic environment have led to the emergence of competing ideas as to the elements of Turkish foreign policy in this region. This article argues that these ideas ultimately represent worldviews as they start with different assumptions about what Turkey is, what the basis of Turkeys interest and involvement should be in this region, to what extent Turkey should engage the Middle East, and what the threats and/or opportunities emanating from the region are. Each of these worldviews has been institutionalized to some extent. I conclude that these worldviews continue to co-exist and compete with each other in Turkish foreign policy today.

Making Sense of Turkish Foreign Policy in the Middle East under AKP

Employing the four categories of change as defined by Charles Hermann and the insight of Walter Carlsneas that the dynamic between structure and agency causally condition each over time, the article conceptualizes change in Turkish foreign policy under the AKP. This theoretical analysis of Turkeys foreign policy allows for the examination of the interplay of domestic actors with the regional and international systems including their economic, identity and security components. It also explores the impact Turkeys activism in the area has had in Turkey and among the people of the region. Finally, it raises key questions as to the future of Turkish foreign policy as the outcomes of the Arab Spring develop.

Turkey's Search for a Third Party Role in Arab–Israeli Conflicts: A Neutral Facilitator or a Principal Power Mediator?

This paper examines Turkeys increasing involvement in the Israeli–Syrian and Israeli–Palestinian conflicts as a third party in the last decade. The paper first discusses the underlying reasons and motivations behind the change in Turkish foreign policy. In this section we answer the following question: While the traditional Turkish policy in the Middle East was non-intervention, what factors contributed to this recent change? We discuss these as systemic factors and domestic factors. In the second section of the paper we summarize the theoretical literature on third party intervention and mediation especially focusing on strategies, modes, activities, and tactics used. This section lays the background for the following section which classifies the various Turkish third party strategies and activities in the Israeli–Syrian and Israeli–Palestinian conflicts so far. In the final section we focus on the challenges to this new Turkish role from Turkish, Israeli, and Arab perspectives. We also discuss the crises between Israel and Turkey in the last year and how they constitute a barrier to Turkey acting in an effective third party role.

Turkey's Iraq Policy: The War and Beyond

Turkeys Iraq policy has come under scrutiny since the Turkish parliament defeated a motion that called for Turkeys involvement in the war against Iraq in 2003. This study argues that rationalist perspectives cannot completely account either for Turkeys non-cooperation with the USA in this war or for the articulation and implementation of Iraq policy since then. A comprehensive account of Turkeys Iraq policy requires a discussion of the impact of identity politics and historical narratives on perceptions of interests.

Turkey as an ‘Emerging Donor’ and the Arab Uprisings

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, which came to power in 2002, has increasingly been using aid as an instrument of foreign policy, including in the Arab world. This increased with the Arab uprisings and has peaked with the ongoing civil war in Syria, reaching

EU Foreign Policy and the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict: How much of an Actor?

2 billion in 2012. Despite substantial changes in the amount and geographical coverage of aid after the ‘Arab Spring’, there are also substantive continuities in Turkeys aid policy. The AKP has been focused on security and stability, and on consolidating power among new regimes. The direction of aid has thus followed that of regional foreign policy, and the governments interests have been given an ideational framing through notions of historical and cultural affinity and responsibility.

Turkey’s “Return” to the Middle East

Abstract This article aims to analyse the EUs evolving involvement in the management and resolution of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. By using the framework of EU ‘actorness’, it argues that the EU has had the ‘opportunity, presence and capabilities’ to be an actor in the conflict. Developments in the international and EU contexts, as well as in the conflict itself, both allowed, and at times forced the EU to be more active. As a result the EU has become a more important actor in the conflict space. Yet this occurred at the expense of the EUs decreasing distinctiveness as an actor.

The Middle East in Turkey–USA Relations: Managing the Alliance

Turkey’s potential as a regional power in the Middle East has been discussed since the 1990s. This was in contrast with Turkey’s historical reluctance to get deeply involved with this region. This refluctance stemmed from not only Turkey’s own concerns about “being dragged into this conflict-ridden” region, but also the low level of acceptance of Turkey in the Middle East as a regional actor. The situation has changed significantly especially since the 2000s due to both actor-specific and structural factors. The coming of power of Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey in 2002 and the transformation of Turkish politics and economy coinciding with the evolution of regional politics in post-2003 Iraq War era led to Turkey’s actorness in the region. In parallel Turkey’s attractiveness increased among both the public and the policy makers in the Middle East, albeit for different reasons. The eruption of the Arab uprisings in 2011, however, once again severely limited Turkey’s influence and power in the region, as well as tainting its positive image.

Special Issue on Turkey and the Middle East

The Middle East has been increasingly factoring into the relations between Turkey and the USA since the end of the cold war. Ironically, the issues related to this region simultaneously intensify and erode the bilateral relations. For the USA, the significance of Turkey has always related to some extent to the Middle East. For Turkey, on the other hand, during the cold war years this connection was not always welcomed. In the aftermath of the cold war, the Middle East became one of the most significant elements of the alliance, a development that was accepted by both sides. The changes in the international arena, such as the end of bipolarity and post-9/11 developments as well as regional changes, particularly the Iraqi crises, Iranian nuclear issue, the Arab uprisings and changes in the regional balance of power, had an impact on the evolution of American–Turkish relations and created both convergence and divergence of interests. Finally, domestic politics, especially the ideology and policies of state actors, had a bearing on bilateral relations in the context of the Middle East. As Turkey became more active and developed particular interests in the Middle East, the crises in Turkey–USA relations began to occur more frequently and led to bargaining processes between the two allies.