Change in Turkey’s Northern Iraq Policy: A Comparative Analysis of Turgut Özal and Tayyip Erdoğan’s Tenures

Abstract

Since the 1960s, Turkish policymakers have developed a distant attitude towards the Kurdish movement in Iraq and they have been concerned about the possibility of similar developments taking place in Turkey. However, in the early 1990s, and then from 2007/2008 onwards, Turkey left its distant attitude towards northern Iraq and pursued an active policy developing close relations with the Iraqi Kurds. This paper explores to what extent Turkey’s foreign policy change towards northern Iraq in these two periods constituted leader-driven change and to what extent these changes resulted from structural/environmental factors.

Keywords

Turkish Foreign Policy, Foreign Policy Change, Northern Iraq, Tayyip Erdoğan, Turgut Özal

Citation

Kayhan Pusane, Özlem, “Change in Turkey’s Northern Iraq Policy: A Comparative Analysis of Turgut Özal and Tayyip Erdoğan’s Tenures”, International Relations, Volume 14, Issue 56, 2017, pp. 39-53.

Affiliations

• Özlem KAYHAN PUSANE, Assistant Professor Dr., Department of International Relations, Işık University