The Middle East basin can be considered as a meeting point of different cultures and religions which also means the source of world conflicts. When Kofi Annan was puzzling, the possibility of a clash of Civilizations in 2005 as Huntington specify2, he addressed the leaders of Spain and Turkey to co-chair the Alliance of Civilizations. With their background of having different cultures co-existing peacefully and harmoniously, both in Iberia and Anatolia, no other countries would have better understanding to lead such an initiative.
1 Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AK Parti, AKP, eng. JDP hereinafter AK Party:
According to official party records given by the Ministry of Interior, the acronym of the party is ―AK Parti. In Turkish the word ―Ak means white and clean; or without stain that refers a clear reference to the party image of uncorrupted character. Instead of AK Parti, however, many scholars are using AKP, which is a misnomer.
2
See, Samuel P. Huntington, The Class of Civilizations and the Remaking of World
Turkey is a vital country from geo-strategic perspective, it is vital for the interests of Europe and the Western world. Geographic location between the East and West gives Turkey an easy access to strategically important regions and major energy resources. Besides, thanks to its character as a modern country and democratic state, Turkey stands as an example for Muslim majority countries.3 Due to the geographical position, Spain and Turkey situates in the periphery of Europe also unite East and West like a bridge. They are also two entry point for the E.U: Spain is an entry point of the Atlantic, Turkey for Central Asia, Middle East and Caucasus. Both states can be considerate as portal to the North of Africa and the rest of the Mediterranean in general. Spain and Turkey belongs to the European area, African area and Asian area. Furthermore they look in the same direction on the regional issues like the peace progress in the Middle East, and the Caucasus. On the other hand, they are members of NATO, ONU, OECD, IMF, Union for Mediterranean and Turkey is the unique pending candidate of the EU with a predominant Muslim population and Spain supports the full membership of Turkey. It means that multilateralism is the millstone of both countries foreign and security policies.
Spain and Turkey experienced drastic changes after Second World War. Even Turkey started the democratization process before Spain, with the reforms made by Atatürk4, still today the country has continued struggle somewhere
3
Graham E. Fuller, "Turkey's Strategic Model: Myths and Realities," The
Washington Quarterly 27, no. 3 (2004):p. 51.
4
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk: ( Turkish: “Kemal, Father of Turks”) , original name Mustafa Kemal, also called Mustafa Kemal Paṣa (born 1881, Salonika [now
Thessaloníki], Greece—died Nov. 10, 1938, Istanbul, Turkey), soldier, statesman, and reformer who was the founder and first president (1923–38) of the Republic of Turkey. He modernized the country’s legal and educational systems and encouraged the adoption of a European way of life, with Turkish written in the Latin alphabet and with citizens adopting
a solid example of democratic consolidation in Southern Europe.5 When it comes to the history of republic, the transition to democracy in the case of Turkey and Spain have got some similarities and differences. Since the first republic of Spain in 1873 politic life of the country was the subject of several interruption as restoration, civil war, dictatorship, coup d’état. The history of Turkey is not so far away from Spain. Turkey is among the democracies established soon after the World War I but the country underwent serious crisis in the consolidation process. After the creation of Modern Turkey in 1923, the political life was interrupted by several coup d’états because of segmentation between seculars and Islamist, left and right, nationalist and separatists and the democracy is still not working as it supposed to be.
The focus of following dissertation is to analyze the effects of democratic transition and consolidation to foreign policy decision making process. The idea is the properly examine similar and different cases in both states and see the results in decision making. In particular, the main focus is Middle East policy of Turkey between 2002 and 2013. The perspective of research mainly based on the relations of Turkey with Middle East countries, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Israel and Cyprus. During the research Turkey’s norm diffusion policies as a democracy promoter toward the Middle East was analyzed.
European-style names.( http://www.britannica.com/,
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/40411/Kemal-Ataturk)
5
See, J.Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and
Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe (Johns
The following dissertation is situated in the discipline of international relations as well as in area studies. Key concepts such as, democracy, transition to democracy, democratic consolidation, the relation between democracy and foreign policy, Islamism and their link to foreign policy were clarified. Also the effects of domestic affairs to foreign policy within the concept of international relations were analyzed. The importance of Alliance of Civilizations and Barcelona Process was clarified in the framework of democracy and peace promoters in Middle East region.
The dissertation based on specific units of this intertemporal analysis of Turkish and Spanish foreign policy. During the study particular periods were picked; In case of Spain: foreign policy of Franco Dictatorship, the effects of democratic transition to foreign policy decision making and consolidation period; In case of Turkey: foreign policy under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk rules and Turkeys ongoing transition process as well as AKP’s ‘pro-western’6 and ‘neo-ottoman’7
foreign policy concepts will be the subjects of the dissertation.