Inquiry on Pan-islamist Feature of the Recent Turkish Foreign Policy with Constructivist Perspective

There are criticisms about recent Turkish foreign policy that Turkey has been moving from an activist ‘zero problem’ approach to a ‘precious loneliness’. This article aims to find the most relevant foreign policy or international relations theory to analyze the paradigm of recent Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East region specifically during the Justice and Development Party (herein it will be used as AKP). A constructivist ‘ummah’ identity approach serving for realist purposes is found to be the most accurate explaining theory for the transformation of the Turkish foreign policy. It will be examined if AKP followed a continuation of the 1990s’ liberal activist foreign policies in its first two terms, however a new constructed “ummah image” in a pan-Islamist contextual framework in foreign relations has been in effect after 2002. It will be argued that how this constructivist approach is aligned with the ‘strategic depth’ doctrine of Ahmet Davutoğlu, who is assumed to be the main character in directing the Turkish foreign policy in the AKP governments. It will be inquired how the new agent-structure relation takes place, how new constructed ‘ummah’ identity, its interests and norms are related to and came into the surface during the Arab uprisings. After Arab Spring, the new constructed positioning and its elements are shifted to realize more pragmatist realist purposes in the region.