Kurdish problem in Turkey's Syria politics (1979-2015)

The aim of this thesis is to analyze Turkey's Syrian policy in the context of the Kurdish problem and the regional Kurdish question. In this context the basic research question of thesis is how and in what direction the influence of the Kurdish problem and the regional Kurdish question over the last 35 years on Turkey's Syrian policy. It is possible to say that since the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, many topics have been influenced directly by Turkey's Syrian policy (Hatay Issue, the use of rivers) and indirectly (taking place in different poles during the Cold War, Turkey's relation with Israel). However, with the 1980s, Kurdish identity and regional developments resulting from it have become the main themes that have begun to construct alliances, conflicts and balances directly in the relations of the two countries. The Syrian government's involvement in the Turkey's Kurdish problem through the relationship it has established with the PKK since the early 1980s, common threat perceived by the two countries over the regional Kurdish question during the 1990s and after the begining of the Syrian Civil War, the Kurdish problem of Syria, has been the topic of the last 35 years to directly construct relations between the two countries In this study, which examines the Syrian policy of Turkey, based on the assumptions of constructivist theory, primary and secondary sources were analyzed and conceptual and logical analyzes were tried to be done.