Abstract:

The political history of Turkey passed mostly with the struggle of political polarizations. The main actors of this struggle were the conservative mentality that took over the conservation of the state and the Batıcı tendency and the cultural heritage of the Ottoman. These actors have not only been in conflict in domestic politics but have also made the foreign policy part of this struggle. The Middle East, an important part of the Ottoman, was the center of this struggle in both domestic and foreign policy. From here, the post-constructive theory issues the distinction between foreign policy and internal policy, the article claims that the political blocks in Turkey have instrumentalized the foreign policy in rebuilding their own identities in internal policy, and that they have transformed the foreign policy of the Middle East into a field that serves this purpose. In this context, the article examines the Middle East designation of the Kemalist and conservative political fronts; it claims that this designation first sees the work of strengthening their own identity in domestic policy and second that it aims to marginalize other/controversial political statements. The article, which will begin with a multi-party period to study alternative political statements, will take its analysis to the years 2010 to capture the continuity and patterns in the representations.

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Abstract:

Turkish political history has on a large scale passed through the conflict between two political fronts. The Kemalist bloc which takes a position in favor of the new state and its Western orientation, and conservative bloc which tries to protect Ottoman’s cultural and political heritage have been two main actors of this conflict. The actors in question have made foreign policy a part of this conflict. The Middle East, as an important part of Ottoman, have been at the heart of this conflict in both domestic and foreign policy. Thus, with reference to post-structuralist theory’s main argument which problematize classical theories in International Relations, the paper argues that political blocs in Turkish politics instrumentalizes Turkish foreign policy in order to consolidate their own identity. Accordingly, the present paper examines the imagination of the Middle East from the perspectives of particular political blocs in Turkish politics, namely Kemalist and conservative. It argues that those imaginations construct a discourse which serves to (1) construct the political identity of actors; (2) marginalize other/rival discourses. By doing so, the paper begins with multi party period as Turkish political life witnessed alternative political discourses with multi-party system. Finally, it continues until 2010s because it aims to find out pattern in representations.