The Anti-Globalist Resonances in the Recent Turkish Foreign Policy

Abstract

The paper tackles how the Turkish foreign policymakers of the AKP era view anti-globalization and presents some current discussions regarding Turkish foreign policy. During its first terms, the ruling party of Turkey, the AKP (Justice and Development Party), sought to align with the EU and the Western world and naturally had a tendency to conform to the liberal democratic order. However, during its later terms, the AKP foreign policymakers adopted a more critical stance towards globalization. In this regard, the first section of this study tackles theories of capitalism, globalization, and the current inequalities. How the AKP approaches such issues are sought to be revealed through a discussion focusing on anti-globalization. The second section addresses Turkey's handling of regional and global issues by employing a new view to globalization in which an active and more engaging foreign policy is envisaged. The third section shortly reviews the situation that emerged after the Hagia Sophia decision of the Turkish government. The study also aims at perusing the shift of the axis and discourses in the Turkish foreign policy and how the AKP governments have made use of various rightist and leftist discourses to promote their own brand of Islamic internationalism.