An Analysis of Turkish Foreign Policy According to the Constructivist Theory and Culture: The Example of the Kirkuk Referendum

The purpose of the study is to examine the Kirkuk Referendum in Turkish Foreign Policy through the theory of constructivism and of the cultural feature. The importance of culture that became prominent after the Second World War in political science and in the discipline of international relations, developed into an interpretative framework since the 1990s. Although the importance of culture has been recognized in international politics, realist and liberal approaches maintained their theoretical domination throughout the Cold War. The emergence of the theory of constructivism, placed the concept of culture in central position in political science and international politics since the 90s. The most important factor in this theoretical development was that the "rationality" that emerged with the Enlightenment was insufficient to explain events both in domestic politics and in international relations. Thus the theory of constructivism by accepting the culture as an analytical tool took its place among theories of international relations. The study consists of two parts: a theoretical and a case study. The first part focuses on the central place of culture in foreign policy and international relations based on the constructivist theory. The second part analyses the effect of culture on the manifestations of Turkish Foreign Policy within the framework of the said theory. The analysis is based on the discourse produced by the Turkish Foreign Policy decision makers during the "Kirkuk referendum" discussions, that took place between Kurdish Regional Government in Northern Iraq and Turkey from April 2017 to November 2017