Foreing policy discourse and practice of AKP governments: Analysis from the perspective of constructivism

This thesis examines the political identity of the Justice and Development Party that came to power in November 3, 2002 elections throughout the years between 2002 and 2014, differences occured in the formation of identity through different government periods, changes over the foreign policy practices generated by JDP identity and to what extent Constructivist theory can explain those changes. Within the Turkish Republic in which the state identity constitutes an important part, JDP as a political actor that comes to the forefront with its identity and leads to the conflicting ideas about this, denied its "National Vision" (Milli Görüş) background and represented an identity that is reconciled with the basic parameters of Turkish politial system especially in the foundation years of the Party. But, the pragmatic identity of Conservative Democracy which was shaped by the pursuit of security and legitimacy in the face of secular opposition has been constructed in different ways in different government periods and those differences have been reflected in the foreign policy practices. This case coincides with the understanding of flexible identity and foreign policy attached by Constructivism that predicates the identity on the basic of foreign policy and denies the existence of determined formations of identity and state interest. However, it is a controversial issue to determine whether the changes over foreign policy practices caused by the understanding of interest and security of new decision makers represent the changes over methods and behaviour or those are the radical changes in the foreign policy. In this respect, the limitation of Constructivist perspective to explain the extent of change within the Turkish foreign policy practices caused by JDP identity should also be mentioned. Considering those factors, in this study, the political and social discourses of JDP members will enable a better understanding of the different formations of JDP identity through different government periods. In this regard, discourses and statements of JDP members-particularly JDP leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, constiute an important part in the sense of understanding security and interest perceptions of decision makers and periodical differences in identity formation. On the other hand, Iraq and Cyprus policies will enable us to perceive the reflection of transformation of JDP's identity formation and political discourses on foreign policy practices. Moreover, those foreign policy cases that will enable an understanding of whether the JDP identity lead to an essential difference in traditional foreign policy behaviour or not, will also help to determine whether the JDP identity is the reflection of a strategic and pragmatic choice or not.