MANIFESTATIONS OF ISLAM IN TURKEY’S FOREIGN POLICY: ISLAMIC INTERNATIONALISM AND TURKISH ISLAM
Journal Title: The Copernicus Journal of Political Studies - Year 2017, Vol 0, Issue 1
Abstract
The incumbent government of the Justice and Development Party (Turkish - Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi – AKP) has often been accused of pursuing an Islamic agenda, particularly in its foreign policy, due to its concern shown for restoring Turkey`s bonds with the Muslim countries broken off by the Kemalist regime. The post-Arab spring political developments in the neighbouring countries and Turkey embarking on religious discourse in approaching them, particularly in the cases of Egypt, Palestine, and recently Syria, have further solidified such arguments. Keeping these debates in mind, this paper aims to elaborate the actual weight Islam carries in Turkey’s AKP era of foreign policy and what such policy entails. This paper argues that Turkey’s confident use of religion in foreign policy cannot be simply defined as an “Islamic foreign policy’”, and neither can its foreign policy be disassociated from religion’s constitutive role. From the Turkish perspective, Islam manifests itself as two distinct but partly overlapping and sometimes contradictory practices, namely Islamic Internationalism and Turkish Islam. While the former refers to Turkey`s responsibility towards Muslim communities on the basis of the ummah, the latter refers to promoting the performance of Ottoman/Turkish Islamic practices abroad against the expansion of extremist ideology. In the first instance, Turkey is blamed for supporting religious extremists, yet in the second Turkey fights against extremism. Therefore, “Islamic foreign policy” being used to equally describe these two distinct policies is not helpful but rather blurs the issue and is based on a biased position.
Authors and Affiliations
Hüsrev Tabak
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP500961
- DOI 10.12775/CJPS.2017.001
- Views 82
- Downloads 0
PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING IN POLAND – ASSUMPTIONS VS REALITY
Sherry Arnstein (1969), the author of the participation ladder, emphasizes that "social participation” resembles spinach eating – basically no one is against because in the end it is healthy. The article presents differe...
The Struggle for Contemporary Turkey’s Future: Tension between AK Party and the Hizmet Movement
Without doubt, tension between Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Hizmet Movement is of vital importance for both Turkey and international society. This conflict is also important for Turkey’s fu...
THE MINSK AGREEMENTS OF 2015: A FORCED STEP OR A SMALL ACHIEVEMENT OF THE UKRAINIAN SIDE WITHIN THE DIPLOMATIC CONFRONTATION AROUND THE WAR IN THE DONBAS
The article describes the formats in which the “Ukrainian question” has been discussed in various forums in the last year and defines various reasons why meetings within the format of the “Normandy Quartet” was the most...
SOCIAL MANDATE FOR POLISH LEGISLATIVE AND EXECUTIVE POWER CENTRAL ORGANS IN THE FACE OF CHALLENGES THAT AWAIT THE EU. THE QUESTION OF FOR PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Due to amalgamation of Polish and EU systems, the shape of many public policies in the country is the consequence of decisions taken within the EU – but what is more important – with participation of Poles. Complexity of...
TURKEY’S NEW FOREIGN POLICY: THE QUEST FOR REGIONAL HEGEMONY IN THE MIDDLE EAST?
The last decades saw Turkey evolving from its Cold War era model of foreign relations, when it was the bastion of the West in the region, which involved alliance with the US and Israel. Following the doctrine of Ahmed Da...