Does turkey remain a part of the euro-atlantic security community? turkey's security identity during crises in iraq and syria

During the time of AKP reign in Turkey, we could observe possible shift in Turkey’ssecurity identity: inconsistency of values, a different perception of threats and lack of military cooperation among Turkey and Euro-Atlantic partners. Thus, the puzzle of this thesis is as follows:despite the fact that AKP party declares importance of belonging to the Euro-Atlantic community, its position during crises of Iraq and Syria looks inconsistent and even might clash with the collective Euro-Atlantic security identity. This situation allows us to ask if a change in behaviour and, most likely, a change in Turkey's security identity still allows us to call Turkey as a part of the Euro-Atlantic security community. This study aims to evaluate the integration of Turkey’s security identity within the collective Euro-Atlantic security identity and find out if this integration level is rising or falling, thus allowing to answer the question if Turkey is still a part of the Euro-Atlantic security community. In order to do that, four tasks are set: 1) to underpin the link, which exists according to the security communities’ theory, between Turkey’s security identity digression from collective Euro-Atlantic security identity and Euro-Atlantic security community's non-military security dilemma – the danger of disintegration; 2) employing the theory of security communities, to distinguish the main research variables and describe how they are going to be interpreted. Turkey’s security identity and integration level into Euro-Atlantic security community is going to be analysed according to these variables; 3) using constructed model, conduct qualitative comparative analysis on Turkey’s security identity during the crises of Iraq and Syria; 4) based on the theoretical model assumptions, evaluate Turkey’s level of integration into Euro-Atlantic security community during the times of different crises, and answer the question if Turkey’s integration level into the Euro-Atlantic community is rising or falling. The study has shown that during AKP time in power a shift accrued between Turkey’s political identity and the identity of Euro-Atlantic security community: Turkey was leaning more and more towards authoritarianism, Islamism and undermining the norms and values of liberal democracy. This was evident during the Iraq crisis but even more obvious during the time of Syria’s crisis. Successful military cooperation until AKP’s government shows that during the Iraqi crisis the change in Turkey’s political identity determined different threat perception among Turkey and its Euro-Atlantic partners, and thus resulted only in nominal Turkey’s integration into Euro-Atlantic security community. During the Syria’s crisis common threat perception exist (ISIS to a certain extent, Russia, and migrant crisis) which lead to military cooperation, although differences remains on the Kurdish issue. Based on the security community’s theory, we could say that Turkey is still a part of Euro-Atlantic security community but only in the second tier of integration and not the third one. Neo-ottoman identity contradicts liberal values and does not allow the formation of trust among the partners, thus, the full integration is not possible. Such situation shows that Turkey’s membership in the Euro-Atlantic community is unstable. The study has shown how important is the change that Russia has brought into the crisis. Therefore, it is important to conduct further research on Turkey-Russia relations in a broader NATO context, not only in Syrias crisis, as Russia poses a threat to various parts of Euro-Atlantic regions. Despite differences during Iraq crisis and in the beginning of Syrias crisis too, an active Russia’s interference on behalf of Assad was a crucial factor that drove Turkey back towards her traditional partners. We could say that even if Turkey is not a fully integrated member, Turkey still remains an important part of the Euro-Atlantic security community