Security and capacity: Turkey's Middle East policy between 2002-2011

Turkey's foreign policy has historically been shaped on "Westernism" and "the status-quoism" axis. Besides this, Turkish foreign policy has basically a security-oriented understanding. In the period following the AK Party's ruling on 3 November 2002, it is observed that Turkey has experienced drastic changes in many areas. Foreign policy is one of these points. In the AK Party era, many new concepts and practices have started to be used in foreign policy. During this period, Turkey has had a different perspective in terms of its own geopolitical position and self-perception. These differences have brought some changes in Turkey's relations with Middle East. In this period, the Middle East were perceived as an area that allows Turkey to be more effective in regional and global scale. Changes in "self- perception" have enabled Turkey to build deeper relationships with the Middle East on the basis of historical heritage and common civilization. During this period, Turkey, compared with before, has much more efficient position in the Middle East and it is observed that Turkey has increased its capacity economically, socially and politically. From this point of view, the main aim of the thesis is to question the relationship between Turkey's Middle East Policy in AK Party period and the security understanding of Turkish Foreign Policy. Moreover, it is discussed that whether the foreign policy understanding of AK Party is in a different position from the "Westernism" and "Status quoism". The main question is whether Turkey-Middle East relations in AK Party era are security-oriented or not. this study examines the Middle East relations of this period based on the theoretical assumptions of neorealism. In this study, Turkey- Middle East relations in the AK Party period were examined based on the basic assumptions of neorealism.