Neo-Ottomanism in Turkish Foreign Policy and Changes during the Erdoğan era Author: Vladimír Hurych Abstract In November 2002, the new emerging Justice and Development Party (AKP) experienced a landmark electoral victory that significantly rewrote the prevailing domestic and foreign policy identity. The Islam-based AKP and its leaders Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Abdullah Gül and Ahmet Davutoğlu initiated a massive transformation of the Turkish society imposing economic market-oriented reforms and emphasizing the role of democratic institutions and the potential EU membership. AKP establishment also adopted a new foreign policy identity - the neo-Ottomanism. The concept has a background in 1990's strategy of former President Turgut Özal who emphasized the historical, cultural and religious heritage of the Ottoman Empire. Based on domestic changing identity, AKP's neo-Ottomanism served as an ideological tool how to transform its foreign policy identity with using the Islamic narrative and soft power tools. The thesis analyses how the new establishment of 2000's redefined the role of Turkey regarding its geopolitical position in the Middle East. Turkey has been emphasizing its strategic role as a regional power on the crossroads of many cultures and geopolitical interests. The question is how and whether the AKP...

La socialisation politique des jeunes engagés dans le Parti de la Justice et du Développement Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, l’AKP- en Turquie et les conséquences de ce militantisme sur leur rapport à l’autre et leur vision du monde sont l’objet d’étude de cette thèse. La question de la relation avec des groupes « d'autruis » -les Kurdes et les alévis- permet d’examiner le potentiel de démocratisation de l’AKP, parti issu de l’islam politique se définissant comme conservateur démocrate. Présentés auparavant par leur capacité à réaliser la compatibilité de l’islamisme avec la démocratie, le modèle turc et l’AKP, constituent aujourd’hui un cas pour analyser les obstacles à la démocratisation. Grâce à une enquête menée dans huit villes de Turquie -Istanbul, Antalya, Alanya Kayseri, Aksaray, Sivas, Ordu, Van- cette étude examine les trajectoires d’engagement et de cadrage politique des jeunes dans l’AKP. Elle met ainsi en lumière l’absence de transformation du cadre structurel en vue de la reconnaissance des droits de « l’autrui » qui révèle les déficits démocratiques. / This research analyses the political socialization processes of the youth engaged in the Justice and Development Party - Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP - in Turkey and the consequences of this engagement on their perception of the « other» and their worldviews. The question of their relations with ethnic and confessional others – such as the Kurds and the alevis – makes it possible to evaluate the democratization potential of the AKP. Presented as able to merge political Islam and democracy, the Turkish model and the AKP constitute today a case-study to observe the obstacles to democratization. Based on the results of a survey realized in eight different cities of Turkey - Istanbul, Antalya, Alanya Kayseri, Aksaray, Sivas, Ordu, Van - this study examines engagement trajectories and political framings of the AKP youth. It also sheds light on the absence of transformation of the structural framework for the recognition of the rights of the “others”, a fact that exposes democratic deficits

Cette thèse examine la « politique arabe » de la Turquie sous le règne du parti de la Justice et du Développement (AKP). Alors que pendant la majeure partie du XXème siècle la Turquie était désengagée du Moyen-Orient, les années 2000 voient une implication croissante d’Ankara dans son environnement régional arabe. Ainsi, cette thèse analyse le changement d’orientation qui a eu lieu en Turquie en matière de politique étrangère et de diplomatie à l’égard du Moyen-Orient. L’argument principal est que l’ouverture de la Turquie sur son environnement moyen-oriental est liée au phénomène de l’émergence : étant une puissance moyenne émergente en quête de statut, la Turquie de l’AKP trouve en le Moyen-Orient un champ de manœuvre indispensable pour son affirmation à l’échelle internationale. Nous avons examiné les outils et méthodes employés par la puissance moyenne émergente pour s’ériger en puissance régionale de son hinterland moyen-oriental, en particulier : le nouveau discours civilisationnel employé par l’élite au pouvoir, l’invention de «niches diplomatiques » comme la médiation et la diplomatie de la paix, le soft power comme outil de conquête des cœurs et des esprits, et la tentative de règlement de la question kurde. Toutefois, nous avons démontré que malgré le caractère «novateur » de ces instruments, le statut de la Turquie au Moyen-Orient reste fragile : d’une part, l’instabilité qui caractérise la région menace les acquis et les intérêts d’Ankara ; d’autre part, la Turquie souffre d’un « overachievement » ou d’un décalage entre ses ambitions de puissance et ses capacités et ressources réelles. Plus généralement, l’ « émergence» turque se heurte aux blocages du système international : la structure « oligarchique » de celui-ci empêche l’intégration des puissances moyennes en quête de statut et limite leur capacité d’influence dans le jeu de gouvernance mondiale. / This thesis examines the "Arab policy" of Turkey under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (JDP). While for most of the 20th century Turkey was disengaged from the Middle East, the beginning of the 21st century witnessed a growing involvement of Ankara in its Arab regional environment. Thus, this thesis analyzes the shift that took place in Turkey's foreign policy and diplomacy towards the Middle East. The main argument is that Turkey’s embrace of its Middle Eastern environment is linked to the phenomenon of “rising powers”: being a rising middle power in quest for status, Turkey has found in the Middle East a field maneuver necessary for its assertion on the international stage. The thesis examines the tools and methods used by Turkey to emerge as a regional power in its Middle Eastern hinterland, in particular: the use of a new civilizational discourse by the ruling elite, the recourse to "niche diplomacy" such as mediation and peace diplomacy, the use of soft power to win hearts and minds, and the attempts to solve the Kurdish question. However, it shows that despite the "innovative" character of these instruments, the status of Turkey in the Middle East remains fragile: on the one hand, the instability that characterizes the region jeopardizes the achievements and interests of Ankara; on the other hand, Turkey suffers from an "overachievement" or a gap between its ambitions and its power capabilities and real resources. More generally, Turkey’s quest for status is undermined by the structure of the international system: the "oligarchic" nature of the latter prevents the integration of middle powers and limits their capacity to play an effective role in global governance.

The academic literature on Islamist moderation offers several explanations for why some Islamist political movements are moderate and others radical. These theories focus on the movements' ideology, tactics, and internal democracy. Few accounts address, however, how an Islamist movement's relations with external powers influence this outcome. This paper finds that "moderation" reflects an Islamist movement's relationship of compliance or defiance with external powers rather than its essential organizational characteristics. In comparing the Moroccan Justice and Development Party (PJD) with the Egyptian Muslim Brothers, it explores why the United States has built good relations with the former but not with the latter. Employing approximately 20 interviews conducted with Islamists, U.S. diplomats, and Moroccan experts in 2009, I show that the PJD's compliance with U.S. foreign policy decisions and interests helps to shape perceptions that the movement is more moderate than its Egyptian counterpart, despite the two movements' similar ideology, tactics, and internal practices. / text

The diploma paper addresses the issue of civil-military relations in the Turkish Republic, whose nature is one of the obstacles to the democratic consolidation. The aim of the study is to analyze the period from 2002 to the present, in which the Justice and Development Party has launched a new era in the civil-military relations and began working to end the dominant role of the army within the Turkish state and the regime, and its subordination to the civilian and democratic control. The work examines adopted reforms and the current role of the army. It assesses if the Republic of Turkey is closer to the democratic model of the civil-military relations.

The main aim of this diploma thesis is to evaluate the attitude of Justice and Development party (AKP) towards the European Union (EU). Moravcsik's Theory of Liberal Intergovernmentalism (LI) is used in the thesis for the evaluation. The thesis is divided into four main parts. The first chapter introduces two main theoretical attitudes which deal with process of EU enlargement. These two main approaches are Rational and Constructivist theoretical schools. The basic arguments of these two attitudes are used in several different particular theories. The first theoretical chapter is concluded by empirical limitations of constructivist approach in a case of the Eastern Enlargement. The second chapter is devoted to methodology. It justifies selection of the LI theory as well as selects main dependent and independent variables. Two other chapters pursue empirical part of the thesis while they reflect the logic of the LI theory. The empirical chapter focuses on Turkish domestic politics, especially on the AKP's position within this sphere. Rational behavior of AKP representatives is evaluated in the very first part of this chapter. Two other subchapters are devoted to the interconnection among the AKP and Turkish business interest groups and Turkish public opinion as well as their stance towards the EU....