Opium poppy cultivation crisis in Turkish-American relations: An analysis from the perspective of crisis management

This thesis states that the crisis of opium poppy plantation in Turkey turned out to be a foreign policy problem between Turkey and America between the years 1968 and 1975 when Richard Nixon came to the power in the U.S.A. The crisis also played a determining role on the agenda of national policies of both countries as well as the outbreak of the crisis back in the 1960s. It is a certainly fact that Turkey's poppy plantation is more defined as the march of events rather than its theoretical aspects in the background studies. Thus, this study identifies that the nature of international relations between Turkey and America during the crisis period is more in accordance with the foreign policies within neoclassical realism approach. The plantation of opium poppy and producing drugs plunged Turkey, in which opium poppy has been a historically entrenched crop, into a diplomatic crisis. The crisis management period caused a challenge for Turkish policy makers after their resistance to American pressure. The refusal of banning to all poppy cultivation by Süleyman Demirel government and failure to compromise for both sides led Turkish-American relations to reach at its breaking point over the issue. This forced both country to have a crisis management plan. Diffusion of the crisis for both sides was seen when all poppy cultivation was banned by Turkish government on 30th June, 1971. However, overturn of poppy cultivation ban and the start of poppy plantation again by the new Turkish government led the crisis came out of stronger on 1st July 1974. The study will be carried out in respect to the features of policy makers which may be the basic source of triggering crisis during crisis situations with the help of Neoclassical Approach embracing international actors and the elements of the system causing the issue together. All types of crisis should be classified within its own territory as they have their own emergent conditions and features. This requires to develop different crisis management plans accordingly. Policy makers also identifies their own leadership skills with their strategies and decisions they embraced during crisis management process. Therefore, the uses of sources is shaped by the decisions of policy makers. The study aims to state how poppy plantation crisis was addressed and also managed by three different policy makers in Turkey between the years 1968 and 1975 when the issue became an international diplomatic problem, by explaining the process causing crisis. In the meantime, the study also aims to contribute foreign policy by answering the question, 'When does a crisis arise for countries?'.