Turkey-Syria relations in the Davutoglu period

Criticisms against realism which had been a dominating theory in literature in the aftermath of the Second World War began to rise and the hegemony of realism in the international relations arena was shattered. Instead, constructivism emerged as a new approach and provided many subjects in foreign policymaking with different perspectives. Turkish Foreign Policy followed policies that were similar to the policies of the United States of America which was the leader of the Western Bloc in the time period that Turkey sided with the Western Bloc and it shaped its foreign policy in the framework of that of the Western Bloc. After the Cold War, relative autonomy period sprang in the world order. In spite of this, Turkey could not act actively in this newly born autonomous period in the world order because of both political and economic reasons as well as continueing the habits of the Cold War period. Turkish Foreign Policy, which started to change in the period when İsmail Cem was the foreign affairs minister, maintained this change in the Justice and Development Party's rule as well. However, foreign policy moves that were implemented in the framework of Strategic depth failed. The biggest failure of Turkish foreign policy under Davutoğlu, which failed because of the fact that it conflicted with the notions of power, interest, identity and the system, happened with the case of Syria. In this master thesis, Turkish foreign policy under Davutoğlu with regards to its perspective on Syria will be examined in detailed. In addition, the following questions will be answered: Why did Turkish Foreign policy under Davutoğlu fail in Syria? How did the relations between Syria and Turkey evolve in the Syrian conflict? Keywords: Davutoğlu, Turkish Foreign policy, Syria