The Kurdish Issue and its impact on Turkish foreign policy towards Iraq and Syria

The AKP and Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long been dealing with the Kurdish issue in Turkey, as it has impacted Turkish domestic political aspects and other foreign policy behaviors through the Middle East. Although the Kurdish issue in Turkey is seen as a security danger to the entire nation, it also has global implications, to which Turkey has responded with foreign policy behaviors. This thesis seeks to describe the influence of the Kurdish issue on Turkish foreign policy behaviors. Through a neoclassical realist perspective, a systemic viewpoint is considered to analyze Turkey’s attitude towards the broader geopolitical Kurdish context, including the Kurdish political, militarization, and historical factors that influence power dynamics in the Middle East. Additionally, domestic factors, such as ideational factors, will be considered, revealing more about the Turkish internal policy on the Kurdish issue that influences its foreign policy towards its neighboring states. Through this study, it is presented that Turkey’s historical experiences of the geopolitical Kurdish issue, and that the domestic political struggles between the AKP and the pro-Kurdish parties have been playing a crucial role in impacting the Turkish foreign policy behaviors. The AKP and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continue to perceive the Kurdish issue in Turkey today as an existential security threat. As a result, this perception has driven the regional militarization of the Kurdish threat in Iraq and Syria.