Türkiye's Entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) with the Dimension of Political Psychology and the Framework of Neoclassical Realism

In the literature, it has been asserted that many systemic and intra-state factors played a role on Türkiye's entry into NATO. However, until now, the psychological motivations affecting Türkiye's participation to NATO have not been examined. The aim of this thesis is to reveal the psychological factors affecting Türkiye's decision to join to NATO. In line with this purpose, the question of "whether the psychological motivations have an effect on Türkiye's decision to join the NATO alliance?" is the main problematic of this thesis. In the light of this problematic, the thesis argues that, the psychological factors were effective on Türkiye's decision to join the NATO alliance alongside other systemic and intra-state factors. With in this scope, the psychological motivations that were determined to be effective on the decision to join the alliance were examined with the dimension of the Political Psychology and in the context of the intermediate variables of Neoclassical Realism. The official archives, the press releases and academic studies in this field were used to determine the motivations in question.