The arguments concerning the trade unionism and working class movement in Turkey as well as the largest confederation, T&uuml / rk-iS, in relation to the involvement in the political arena is debated in this thesis by underlining the lack of class identity among the workers. The main argument is that T&uuml / rk-iS was not established by the will and efforts of the workers. Another major discussion point of the thesis is the nonpartisanship policy of T&uuml / rk-iS. It has been found that T&uuml / rk-iS participated quite actively in the political sphere until the 1980 military intervention. However, the limits of this participation were widely drawn by the major political parties of the country. The thesis defends that there are problems stemming from the lack of class consciousness among the T&uuml / rk-iS workers, the hierarchal structure of T&uuml / rk-iS and the profit oriented approaches of the political parties towards T&uuml / rk-iS.

The study examines Turkey&rsquo / s responses in the face of the formation of European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP). The political responses over ESDP have two dimensions. From the viewpoint of Turkey, at the beginning she intended to participate in the process of decision making structure of the ESDP. Therefore, it can be concluded that Turkey is not against the formation of the ESDP. However, as a non-EU European NATO member, Turkey&rsquo / s integration into European security and defense was welcomed but she was excluded from the strategic decision making structure of ESDP. As a result of this, formation of ESDP undermined the position of Turkey who has rights inherited over European security from Western European Union Associate and NATO Memberships. As Turkey was excluded from the decision making structure of ESDP, she put reservations to the EU-NATO cooperation as a NATO member. Secondly, from the viewpoint of European Union, she is trying to keep the decision making authority of ESDP in EU itself by excluding non-EU European states. Besides, Turkey&rsquo / s full integration into European Security and Defense Policy was made contingent to the Turkey&rsquo / s European Union membership. Turkey&rsquo / s EU membership process should not be linked with her full participation, including decision making structure of the ESDP. European defense developments were considered to be as a challenge to NATO and US superiority in Europe. Developments in European defense and Turkey&rsquo / s participation in this process were also examined in this study.

This thesis analyzes the historical decision made by the Turkish Grand National Assembly on March 1, 2003. On this date Turkey made the decision not to accept the United States&rsquo / offer of monetary compensation in exchange for the use of Turkish Air Force bases and the right to move troops through South Eastern Turkey into Northern Iraq. The aim of this work is to give the reader historical background of the strategic alliance these two countries have shared since World War II, and in the events leading up to the Iraq War. The main focus of the paper is to understand, through historical context, the reasons why Turkey said &ldquo / no.&rdquo / This thesis posits three main reasons for the failure of this motion.

This thesis analyses the impact of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the foreign policy of Armenia. It could be claimed that Armenia&rsquo / s relations with the other countries have been shaped by the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. The thesis demonstrates that because of this conflict, Armenian foreign policy has become more dependent on Russia and the Armenian diaspora in Russia, France and the United States despite its desire to be an independent state. Although Levon Ter-Petrossian and Robert Kocharian have advocated different foreign policies, their actions have been similar due to the impact of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The thesis has six main chapters. The first chapter is the introduction. The second chapter explores history of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In the third chapter the Armenian foreign policy under Levon Ter-Petrossian is examined. The fourth chapter discusses the foreign policy of Robert Kocharian. In the fifth chapter the foreign policies of the Ter-Petrossian and Kocharian are compared. The sixth chapter is the conclusion.

&lsquo / The reconstruction of Europe&rsquo / is a subject covering a quite long period that has seen various outstanding historical events changing the geography and power distribution in Europe, and in the politics of international relations within a general framework. This study underlines the impact of geopolitical setting in the post-WW II and the post-Cold War periods to understand the acts of actors and related outcomes in the reconstruction of Europe. By the comparison of reconstructive acts and ingredients of the foreign policy strategies in both periods, this study attempts to reach the conclusion that &lsquo / the geographical position&rsquo / and the &lsquo / capability to implement&rsquo / defines states&rsquo / foreign policy structuring. The policy choice and instruments of the US in the post-WW II period for the reconstruction of Europe and the policy choice and instruments of West European countries for the reconstruction of Central and Eastern Europe, via the EU and enlargement strategy, in the post- Cold War period has been the focal point of this study to support the argument mentioned above.

Drawing on empirical data from the two Palestinian Arab villages of Abu Ghosh and Umm al Fahem, this dissertation assesses the nature of relationship between the Israeli state and its Palestinian Arab citizens from a Gramscian perspective. In this respect, a particular emphasis is given to the analysis of impact of local socio-economic and political structures on the relationship between the villagers and Israeli state and dominant classes especially following a hegemonic crisis during post-al Aqsa Intifada. Based on Gramscian methodology and empirical data, it is concluded that hamula structures could act as an agent of hegemony in internalization and reproduction of of consent based Israeli hegemony. Conditions, dynamics and consequences of this agent-structure relationship is also assessed in detail.

This thesis analyzes the origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict and the historical evolvement of the Palestinian issue by focusing on the practices during the British mandate period. First and foremost, the factors which transformed the Jewish question into the Palestinian question are elaborated. In this context, the emergence of modern political Zionism is presented as the landmark incident in arousing the interest of the Jews dispersed all around the world in the colonization of their promised lands. Although the motive in initiating the colonizing activities in Palestine came with the advent of political Zionist thought, Jewish settlement in Palestine was materialized as a result of the development of British interests in the Middle East. The contradictory promises given to the Arabs and Jews by the British in the course of World War I are treated as the source of the conflict between them. It is stated that the Balfour Declaration, which is the manifestation of the British-Zionist alliance, is the preliminary step of the project of a Jewish state on Palestinian territories. In order to shed light on the implications of Zionist colonization on the Palestinian Arab society, first the socio-economic and socio-political circumstances in the Ottoman era are discussed. Later, the impact of the exclusivist policies of the Jews on communal relations is handled in detail. Moreover, the ways in which the pro-Zionist stance of the British mandate administration contributed to the nation-building efforts of the Jews are argued. Lastly, the causes and consequences of the sporadic Arab tensions, which broke out in 1920, 1921, 1929 and 1936 as a reaction against the British and Zionist policies, are analyzed.

The thesis explores the relationship, or assumed relationship between nomadic tribalism and the stateless group in Kuwait. While exploring this issue, the thesis also examines state formation and tribalism throughout the history of Kuwait. By exploring what the author calls, &quot / Pan-Tribalism,&quot / the thesis also explores assumed cross-border linkages, and perceptions of loyalty, or disloyalty among various groups in Kuwait. The thesis includes research on the history of Kuwait because it reveals early tribal dynamics. The thesis uncovers the roots of certain historical issues and power structures that exist today - as all of this is related to citizenship and statelessness. The thesis takes a close look at the impact of oil on state-formation both due to the mass influx of immigrants that oil wealth caused, as well as the welfare/distributive state policy that emerged afterwards. Both of these issues directly affected citizenship. Additionally, it thus explores internal oil politics rather an international oil politics

Fighting against the regional development disparities has been considered as one of the most important public policies recently. In this regard, Social Support Program, endorsed in 2008 under GAP Action Plan, is regarded as an important example of public intervention with increasing budget and geographical expansion. Objective of SODES is improving social inclusion of disadvantaged groups and enhancing regional social development. Accordingly, projects prepared by local actors to provide social inclusion, to increase employability and to support cultural, artistic and sports events are financed. &ldquo / Social inclusion&rdquo / is defined as policies and implementations targeting to increase access of disadvantaged groups to services like education, health, employment and social assistance. Debates on social inclusion literature include: lack of clear definition, dichotomy as &ldquo / them and us&rdquo / , focus on state rather than process and limited scope. Objective of this study is critically analyzing SODES, on the basis of social inclusion. In-depth interviews are conducted with beneficiaries, their families, project coordinators, local officials and policy makers to understand the impacts of the projects and SODES. It is observed that, there are important positive outcomes like the increase in schooling rate of girls. However, taking into consideration debates on social inclusion and evaluating SODES projects as a whole, it is argued that SODES has deficiencies regarding its project based structure, sustainability, accessibility of all target groups, evaluation, monitoring and institutionalization. The argument of the thesis is that such deficiencies of SODES are also arising from the concept of social inclusion which has its limitations in confronting structural inequalities in the society.

This thesis aims to analyze the property issue in the Cyprus conflict from 1974 up to 2012 based on historical and legal factors. First of all, the historical background of the Cyprus conflict will be evaluated with its different dimensions. After the EU and UN&rsquo / s involvement, the conflict internationalized and regarding the geostrategic importance of the island with the security concerns in the Middle East region the core of today&rsquo / s conflict became the property issue. In this respect, especially both the Turkish and Greek Cypriots proposals about property issue will be detailed one by one. Following that, based on these proposals the Turkish and Greek Cypriots cases to the ECHR about property issue will be analyzed. In the light of these the overall solutions to the Cyprus conflict will be evaluated.