Turkish policy towards Israel and Palestine : continuity and change in the relations of the Turkish-Palestinian-Israeli triangle under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) (2002-2016)

The Turkish foreign policy is a heated subject, studied widely by various scholars. In recent years, coupled with many domestic, regional and international developments, Turkey and its politics have become true topics of interests even beyond these said scholarly circles. Much scholars were giving attention to the Turkish foreign and domestic policy because of events such as Turkish-Israeli tensions, Turkish-Palestinian relations, EU accession question, Kurdish conflict, Arab Spring, the internal power struggle between Kemalist and Islamic political group as well as its involvement in the Syrian war. This dissertation delves into a much-neglected field of study with regards to the Turkish policy towards Israel and Palestine. Therefore, this dissertation mainly examines the governing period of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) from 2002 until 2016. The relationship between these three countries will be coined as the Turkish-Palestinian-Israeli triangle. This triangle forms of the pillars of Turkish foreign policy under AKP. The analytical and theoretical framework of this research proves that both material and idealistic interests formed the AKP government’s foreign policy. As a result, Turkey’s relations with these two countries has been used as a tool for both internal and external power manifestation and expansion for AKP. This thesis builds on the continuity and changes in the triangle relations, starting from the Jewish immigration to the Ottoman Empire until the attempted coup of 2016, with a predominant emphasis on the period 2002-2016. In this dissertation, it will be argued that during the first period, from 2002 until 2007, there was an internal and external expansion of the traditional Turkish foreign policy. This expansion was due to a harmony between AKP’s material and idealistic interests. During the periods of 2007-2011 and 2011-2015, the idealistic interests were prioritised in shaping the AKP’s foreign policy. The overuse of idealistic interests in the Arab Spring period harmed Turkey’s material interests. As a result, Turkey moved towards one of zero friends, more enemies and more isolation. After the middle of 2016, the AKP government attempted to find a harmony between its material and idealistic interests. Within this context, Turkey and Israel reached a normalisation agreement in June 2016 which served as a confirmation of Turkey’s recalculated policy position