Turkey has often been described as a cultural and geographical bridge between West and East. When the Islamic AKP came to power in Turkey 2002 many critics feared that the country was going to abandon its former Western allies and strengthen their relations with the Arab world instead. The criticism was intensified when the AKP increased Turkey’s bilateral relations with the Middle East and moved closer to former foe’s like Iran and Syria, at the same time as their long-time friendship with Israel experienced serious crisis. The aim and purpose of this thesis is to describe and explain the change in AKP’s foreign policy towards Israel. The research method is a combination of a qualitative text analysis of Turkey’s speeches in the UN General debate and Jakob Gustavsson’s model for explaining foreign policy change. The results show that the Turkish-Israeli relations have deteriorated after the Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in 2010, particularly regarding diplomatic relations and military agreements. Based on Gustavsson’s model, possible explanations to AKP’s foreign policy change towards Israel, is structural changes such as a growing economy, a strong Turkish public opinion and new partners, with the Gaza war and the attack on the Freedom Flotilla functioning as catalysts for the deterioration.

Euro barometer surveys show quite an astonishing change in Turkish opinion towards European Union. In 2004, 73 % of the population considered EU as a good thing. In 2008, only 49 % were of the same opinion. At the same time, skepticism towards European integration is explained differently in earlier research. Some scholars claim that partisanship may explain attitudes of citizens better than “cost and benefit” approaches. The first aim of this study is to distinguish whether young Turkish citizens show a similar level of skepticism to the EU compared to the rest of the population. The second aim is to show how earlier research-identified factors can explain the EU attitudes of younger Turkish citizens. To map this out, a questionnaire based on Euro barometer survey questions has been used. The Turkish “youths” have been selected based on three conditions: age, profession and gender. To identify these individuals, the author has used what is sometimes referred to as the “snowball” technique. This basically means that the first identified individuals further contact people who fit the sample criterion. The result indicates that level of education; partisanship and strong nationalism all have an impact on EU membership attitudes. The result also showed that people who visited worship and other religious meetings on a regular basis, had a tendency to be more skeptical to a Turkish EU membership.

The Turkish accession to the European Union has been the most extended one that the Union has been dealing with so far. Turkey is now accepted as a candidate country but it is still in a problematic situation. Most of the EU’s member states do not share the Union’s belief that Turkey should become a full member of the Union, if they should even become a member at all. Europeanization constitutes a ground in this essay, and the “top-down” perspective within this process can give an explanation to why most EU member states have such a hesitance against Turkey.

The purpose of this Masters-thesis is to examine the impact of identity politics on (a) Turkey's foreign policy towards Europe and the EU, and (b) Europe's/EU's political attitude towards Turkey, and what implications this may have on a possibly future Turkish membership in the EU. It is a more interpreting thesis than it is an explaining one. The examination shows that Turkey has considered Europe as a political model, while Europe has used the muslime Turkey as a threat to determine its own identity. The negotiations between EU and Turkey this autumn will have great impact on the identity of both sites. If the EU accepted Turkey as a member, the union could gain a chance to spread democracy to the islamic world and thereby earn global respect. The result of the negotiations will prove if Europe provides Turkey the role of border or bridge to the East.

As of 2013, around 51 million people were living on the run, classified as refugees. One of the reasons the number has increased so much during the last years can be explained by the war in Syria. The aim of following study is to evaluate the impact the Syrian refugee flow has had on the Turkish society up until today, seeing the consequences of economic, political and social impact made on the Turkish society. Due to these chosen aspects the study will be concentrated only on the changes in the Turkish society brought about accordance with economic, political and social effects. What is desirable is to achieve greater understanding of the positive and negative aspects of refugee flows on host countries. Building on this, the study will bring about a discussion on how to improve a study like this in the future. The following paper implies that conflict arises when the host country do not show acceptance of the refugees, and to not create conflicts, countries should welcome the refugees with open arms as Emanuel Mensah Tay indicates.

Sammanfattning Den väpnade konflikten mellan den kurdiska PKK-gerillan och den turkiska staten har pågått med varierande intensitet sedan början av 1980-talet och orsakat tiotusentals dödsskjutningar, och fördrivit ett stort antal civila i sydöstra Turkiet. De sociala och politiska spänningarna, som till exempel gäller ekonomisk rättvisa och erkännande av den kurdiska etniska och kulturella identiteten, har oroat den turkiska staten sedan den bildades efter det Ottomanska rikets kollaps. Även om ett ökande antal studier har beskrivit och analyserat dessa spänningar visar en översyn av tidigare litteratur att endast några av de tidiga studier fokuserade på hur kvinnor har upplevt dessa spänningar. Intresset för ämnet väcktes hos mig på grund av min turkiska bakgrund. Jag är född och uppväxt i ett land där turkar är i hög grad diskriminerade av landets majoritet. Jag känner väl känslan av diskriminering och isolering inte bara som en turk utan även som en kvinna. Därför bestämde jag, som är ursprungligen turk, att skriva om den turkisk-kurdiska konflikten ur ett genusperspektiv. Fokus ligger på kurdiska kvinnors känslor och erfarenheter i den turkisk-kurdiska konflikten som pågått länge i Turkiet. Studien syftar till att analysera hur kurdiska kvinnor uppfattar och upplever de sociala, ekonomiska och politiska spänningarna i skuggan av det rasande inbördeskriget mellan PKK och den turkiska staten. Studien fokuserar först på att identifiera källor till konfliktrelaterad stress som är specifika för kvinnor och analyserar sedan de strategier som kurdiska kvinnor använder för att hantera denna stress. Det empiriska materialet består av fokusgruppintervjuer som genomfördes våren 2017 i Istanbul, Ankara och Diyarbakir med totalt 35 kvinnor. Studiens resultat visar att kurdiska kvinnor möter daglig diskriminering och förtryck som riktar sig direkt mot dem, och samtidigt upplever de alla dessa negativa fenomen genom deras familjemedlemmar. De är tvungna att hålla tyst om sina känslor, rädslor, upplevelser, behov och sorg för att kunna skydda sin familjs liv. / Summary The armed conflict between the Kurdish PKK guerilla and the Turkish state has continued with varying intensity since the early 1980s, causing tens of thousands of casualties and displacing large numbers of civilians in South Eastern Turkey. However, the social and political tensions, relating to, for example, economic justice and recognition of the Kurdish ethnic and cultural identity have troubled the Turkish state since its creation after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Although an increasing number of studies that has been written describing and analyzing these tensions, a review of the early literature shows that few of the early works focused on how women have experienced them. The interest in the subject was created by my Turkish background. I was born and raised in a country where Turks are highly discriminated against by most of the country’s majority. I feel the sense of discrimination and isolation, and therefore I decided to write about the TurkishKurdish conflict from gender perspective. The focus is on the feelings and experiences of Kurdish women in the Turkish-Kurdish conflict that has been continuing in Turkey for a long time. This study seeks to analyze how Kurdish women perceive and experience the social, economic, and political tensions in the shadow of the raging civil war between the PKK and the Turkish state. It first focuses on identifying sources of conflict related stress that are specific to women, and then analyzes the strategies that Kurdish women use to deal with this stress as women. The empirical material consists of focus groups interviews conducted in the spring of 2017 in Istanbul, Ankara, and Diyarbakir with a total of 35 women. The study's findings show that Kurdish women face daily discrimination and oppression directed directly against them, while at the same time experiencing all these negative phenomena through their family members as well. They must keep silent about their feelings, fears, experiences, needs and sorrows to keep their family alive.

The foreign policy of Sweden is based on peace, security, human rights and democracy. In the documents of the foreign policy, the government writes: The purpose of the foreign policy of Sweden is to create security in our country, and in the world. There is no security without democracy, and there is no democracy without human rights and Sweden has to protect and defend these values. Along with these values, Sweden is the 15th biggest arms trader in the world (2015-2020) and has the highest exportation of arms per capita in the world. Many of these exportations also go to non-democratic states.  The purpose of this study is to provide knowledge about why Sweden acts different when it comes to arms trade towards non-democratic states. The research being conducted is a case study of Sweden’s arms trade to Turkey and the United Arab Emirates and why Sweden acts different in the two cases. Sweden stopped the arms trade to Turkey in 2019 due to the lack of democracy and the violations of human rights, but continues to export arms to the United Arab Emirates. Furthermore the study will be using Kjell Goldmann’s theories regarding real idea politics to explain why Sweden acts different in the two situations. The methods that are used in this study are text analysis and case study. The material has been analyzed on the basis of real and idea politics. The main sources are IPSs’ reports, the laws, government documents and parliament document.  The conclusion of the study is that Sweden still exports arms to United Arab Emirates because they still export on old treaty and no new treaty has been issued since 2017. Furthermore, the cases are a combination of the theory’s, but one of them is more prominent in the different cases. Sweden’s actions to stop arms trade to Turkey is an example of when idea politics is more prominent and Sweden’s actions to continue arms trade to United Arab Emirates is an example of when real politics is more prominent.

The representation of national identity in museums of the 21st century´s diverse and multicultural societies is a challenging task. It is a task that involves questions of narrative and heritage inclusivity as well as questions of power and ideology. This thesis includes an investigation of the representation of the Turkish national identity in two state owned museums, one private museum and two contested heritage sites in Istanbul. Both contested sites were legally transformed from museums to mosques in 2020. The investigation also involves questions of power and legitimacy in the Turkish heritage sector in the past decade. Qualitative methods including observations, grounded theory initial coding, exhibition spatial syntax analysis and objects´ value analysis are used in the research. The analysis results revealed a fragmentation in the Turkish national identity representation and in the power structure of the Turkish heritage sector where different key actors are involved in national identity production and representation. The History narrative represented is linear and fragmented where each selected museum presents a different historical period with an emphasis on the multicultural nature of the region historically. Ideology and the heritage policy analysis has revealed that the Turkish heritage sector is heading towards an Ottoman based ideology instead of the secular Kemalism ideology that had built the modern Turkish national identity since the establishment of the republic in 1923.  The results show that the challenge of representing inclusive and sustainable heritage and national identities in multicultural societies is complex. However, to achieve that, museums and heritage sectors would have to adopt policies of recognition and civil society involvement. The state would have to take an architect role by funding the museum and heritage sector without interfering in museum´s function. This is a two years master’s thesis in Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies. / Representationen av nationella identiteter i museerna av 2000-talets mångkulturella samhälle är en utmanande uppgift. En uppgift som involverar frågor om integration, nationellt kulturarv och narrative inkludering samt frågor om makt och ideologi. Denna uppsats omfattar en undersökning av den turkiska nationella identitetsrepresentationen i två statliga museer och ett privat museum samt två omtvistade kulturarv i Istanbul. De två omtvistade platserna omvandlandes från museer till moskéer år 2020. Undersökningen omfattar också frågor om makt och legitimitet inom den turkiska kulturarvssektorn med fokus på det senaste decenniet. Kvalitativa metoder inklusive observationer, grundad teorins kodning, rumslig syntaxanalys och objekts analys används i forskningen. Analysresultaten avslöjade fragmenteringen av den turkiska nationella identitetsrepresentationen och maktstrukturen i den turkiska kulturarvssektorn där olika nyckelaktörer är involverade i representationen och produktionen av det turkiska nationella identitet. Det historienarrative som är representerat är linjärt och fragmenterad där varje utvalt museum presenterar en specifik historisk period med fokus på regionens mångkulturella historia. Ideologi och kulturarvspolitikanalysen har avslöjat att den turkiska kulturarvssektorn är på väg mot en ottomansk baserad ideologi i stället för den sekulära Kemalism-ideologin som byggde den moderna turkiska nationella identiteten sedan republiken grundades år 1923. Resultaten visar att utmaningen att representera inkluderande och hållbara kulturarv och nationella identiteter i multikulturella samhällen är komplex. För att uppnå detta måste emellertid museer och kulturarvssektorer överväga erkännandepolitik samt civilsamhällets-engagemangspolitik och staten måste ta en arkitektroll genom att finansiera museets och kulturarvssektorn med ett armslängdavstånd. Detta är ett tvåårigt examensarbete i Musei- och kulturarvsvetenskap.

This thesis examines the explanatory potential of Charles A. Kupchans hypotheses on cooperation and discord within defence alliances. The hypotheses are analysed in the context of Turkish non-alignment towards NATO’s open-door policy and the Swedish NATO-application. The thesis finds that the hypotheses partially explain Turkish non-cooperation but more importantly, it highlights the complex dynamics that shape decision making, cooperative and non-cooperative behaviour within NATO.  It shows that Türkiye’s pursuit of strategic autonomy and growing regional ambitions have been fuelled by increasing nationalist and anti-western domestic policies, leading to conflicts with other NATO members, resulting in sanctions and political isolation. Concessions regarding sanctions have been catalysts for Türkiye’s final ratification of the Swedish NATO-application.

Syftet med uppsatsen har varit att undersöka om Turkiets nuvarande politiska situation påverkar svensk-turkars vilja att åka till sitt ursprungsland. Den metod som har använts i denna undersökning är både en kvalitativ och en kvantitativ metod. De teorier som författarna har använt inkluderar bland annat Maslows behovspyramid, Hsu et al.s Hierarchy of destination selection model och Simpson och Siguaws teorier om turism och risk.   En enkätundersökning har genomförts med trettio svensk-turkar samt med representanter från Ving och TUI. Frågorna som ställdes till svensk-turkarna handlade om varför de valde eller inte valde att resa till Turkiet med tanke på landets politiska instabilitet. Vi frågade också om bristen på säkerhet i Turkiet är något som oroar dem eller betyder något när de väljer resmål. Författarna undrade också om informanternas etniska bakgrund påverkat valet att resa till Turkiet. Den analys som utförts är byggd på fem teman som hittats i den empiriska studien. De har kopplats till de teoretiska utgångspunkterna med syfte att undersöka hur det senaste politiska kaoset i Turkiet har påverkat svensk-turkars resvanor till landet.   Vi har kunnat konstatera att våra svensk-turkiska respondenters resvanor till Turkiet inte har påverkats så mycket av den politiska instabiliteten. De flesta har i någon mån, på grund av den politiska instabiliteten, börjat tänka mer på vilka delar av Turkiet de reser till men har inte minskat frekvensen på sina resor i någon större utsträckning. Det var endast nio av trettio respondenter som helt slutat åka till Turkiet på grund av den politiska instabiliteten i landet. En av respondenterna skrev att anledningen till att han slutat åka till Turkiet beror på att han inte vill bidra ekonomiskt till landet eftersom han är emot dess regerings politik. Åtta av trettio svenskturkar i vår undersökning tycker att media på ett alltför negativt sätt skildrat den politiska instabiliteten i Turkiet och att de därför inte låtit det påverka sina resvanor. / The purpose of this thesis has been to investigate whether Turkey's current political situation affects swedish-turks willingness to travel to their country of origin. A qualitative and a quantitative method have been used in this study. The theories used include, among others, B. Maslow's hierarchy of needs pyramid, Hsu et al.s Hierarchy of destination selection model and Simpson and Siguaw's theories about tourism and risk.  Surveys sent by e-mail have been carried out with thirty swedish-turks and representatives from Ving and TUI. Some of the questions that were asked to the swedish-turks regarded if they still chose to travel to Turkey even though they are aware of the country's political instability. We also asked if the lack of security in Turkey is something that concerns them or matters when choosing a destination. The authors also wondered if their ethnic background influenced the choice to travel to Turkey. The analytical part of the thesis is based on five themes found in the empirical study linked to the theoretical starting points with the purpose of investigating how the latest political chaos in Turkey has affected the swedish-turks travel habits.  We have found that the swedish-turks travel habits to Turkey have not been affected in a greater scale by the political instability. Although because of the political instability, some of them have begun to be more careful about which parts of Turkey they visit but they have not reduced the frequency of their travels to any significant extent. Only nine out of thirty swedish-turks have completely ceased to travel to Turkey and one of the survey respondents mentioned that the reason he stopped traveling there is because he does not want to contribute financially to the Turkish government as he is against their policies. Eight out of thirty of the swedish-turks found that the media portrayed the political instability in Turkey in an excessively negative way and therefore they have not let this affect their travel habits.