A Critical analysis of Turkish left‘s interpretation of the world order and Turkish foreign policy

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2018

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Berk, Can

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This thesis offers a critical analysis of how Turkey’s socialist movement interpreted “the post-war world order and paradigm shifts in the foreign policy of Turkey” between 1945 and 1980 by mainly basing on “primary sources”. The thesis also explores the relationships between socialist groups’ theoretical frameworks and IR theories and the meta-theoretical bases of their theoretical frameworks. The main argument is that Turkish leftists’ analyses were dominated for the most part by realist assumptions and tended towards a positivist ontology and epistemology. The thesis reaches the conclusion that the leftist groups under analysis employed realist assumptions to account for the explanandum mainly because of Marxism’s inability to advance a theoretical framework for analysis of international relations and foreign policy. It was seen that despite offering some insight into Turkish foreign policy analysis, the prevailing realist assumptions embedded in their analytical frameworks resulted in the production of a state-centric nationalist stance which stood in complete opposition to their historical materialist position. This is evident from their use of the well-known realist terms without subjecting them to critical consideration. As a reflection of a “realist moment” in their theoretical framework, their meta-theoretical stance bears the stamp of positivist ontology and epistemology.

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http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12622791/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/27800

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Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

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Citation Formats

C. Berk, “A Critical analysis of Turkish left‘s interpretation of the world order and Turkish foreign policy,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2018.