Turkey's relations with the Iraqi and Syrian Kurds: A comparative approach

This thesis examines the striking variance in Turkish foreign policy towards the Iraqi and Syrian Kurds between 2011 and 2017, during the Syrian civil war. It explains the difference in Turkish foreign policy by focusing on the impact of socially constructed identities on actor behavior with the guidance of Lene Hansen's discursive research model. This thesis argues that constructed identities, as the foundation and product of foreign policy, have a major role in shaping the difference in the incumbent Justice and Development Party's (AKP) foreign policy practices towards the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), as well as its armed wing People's Protection Units (YPG). Although both the KRG and the PYD/YPG are pro-Kurdish political formations, the AKP government pursued an alliance with the former from 2007 onwards, while it identified the latter as a national security threat. This thesis uses discourse analysis to inspect the tripartite relationship of these actors from the perspective of identity theory.