What is behind the rise of Neo-Ottomanism in Turkish foreign policy in the last two decades?

This thesis paper aims to explain the rise of Neo-Ottomanism as an adopted foreign policy under the two-decade long rule of Justice and Development Party aka AKP by using a sociological framework (Center-Periphery relations) provided by the late Turkish scholar Serif Mardin. Originally, the framework was employed to explain the relationship between the center and the periphery in Turkish history. Mardin (1973) believes that since the 18th century, Ottoman center struggled to align its policies with the demands of the periphery, and this extends to different periods of history. In some periods a cooperative relationship between both center and periphery was witnessed, while in others, periphery saw the center as a totally different entity with different cultural values. While Mardin (1973) ends his formulation of the center-periphery relations framework by explaining the events of the 1960's coup and the execution of Menderes, this paper aims to extend the discussion to the rise of AKP to power in 2002 and explain how the periphery's political aspirations paved the way to shift foreign policy to what is known as Neo-Ottomanism under AKP's rule. Many have tried to explain the emergence of Neo-Ottomanism by going back to the domestic developments in Turkey during the 2000s such as the economical aspect, party politics, Turkish Nationalism and Europeanization. Some other fellow scholars even argue that there is no such thing as Neo-Ottomanism but rather it is a Sunni-Islamist ideology that runs Turkey's foreign policy. It is the objective of this paper to explain the concept of Neo-Ottomanism by primarily referring to Serif Mardin's Center-periphery relations theory as the main factor in emergence of such a concept and give a clear understanding and definition of Neo-Ottomanism by pointing out Turkey's foreign policy attitude under the AKP government. Therefore, the main argument of this paper will be proving the relevancy of Neo-Ottomanism and the 'Periphery' concept of Serif Mardin. In doing so, the three elements of Democracy, Political Polarization and Cultural difference will be utilized in determining how good the relationship between the center and the periphery is and how today those segments of society influence one another.