Turkey's policy towards Syria between two coups: 1960-1980

In this study, Turkey's policy towards Syria from the 27 May 1960 coup d'état to the 12 September 1980 coup d'état is analyzed by depending on domestic and foreign archival documents. The study is written with the chronological-event based methodology rather than citing historical continuity of some factors such as Alexandretta Question and water issue affecting Turkish-Syrian relations. In this study, interrelated domestic, regional and international determinants of Turkey's policy towards Syria between 1960 and 1980 is analyzed within the framework of level of analysis approach. This study argues that Turkey acted in accordance with realpolitik principles with the impact of domestic and external factors during the 1960s and 1970s and pursued a constructive and compromising foreign policy towards Syria in this period. In that regard, it is underlined that conflictual nature of Turkish-Syrian relations in the 1950s transformed into normalization and rapprochement from 1960 to 1980 and two countries cooperated in many areas from culture to economy, from agriculture to trade.