Foreign Policy as Domestic Power Struggle: The Northern Iraq as a Battlefield Between the AKP and the TAF in 2007-8

Year 2015, Volume: 2 Issue: 1, 67 - 94, 18.09.2015

Ali Balcı

Abstract

The issue of rapprochement with Kurdish parties in the Northern Iraq turned a discursive battlefield between Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) and the ruling Justice Development Party (AKP) after the 2005 General Elections in Iraq from which Kurdish groups emerged as a strong political actor in Iraqi politics. When the AKP government declared its policy of rapprochement with the Kurdish regional government at the beginning of 2007, the then Chief of General Staff Yaşar Büyükanıt publicly criticized and rejected this new policy. Büyükanıt declined to talk with Kurdish leaders on the grounds that they were supporting for the PKK. This exchange of statements was the part of a political snowball rolling to which other areas of the struggle were included. The rift between the AKP government and the TAF over how to deal with Iraqi Kurds started just as Turkey gears up for key presidential elections. This paper will attempt to analyze the battle over the Northern Iraq between the TAF and the AKP in order to answer the following questions: How the TAF and the AKP came face to face on the issue of the Northern Iraq? Under what conditions the Northern Iraq turned a discursive battlefield between the TAF and the AKP? What was the function of the Northern Iraq in the domestic power struggle between the TAF and the AKP?

Keywords

AK Party, Civil-Military Relations, Northern Iraq, Foreign Policy

İktidar Mücadelesi Olarak Dış Politika: 2007-8 Yıllarında Ak Parti ve TSK Arasında Bir Mücadele Alanı Olarak Kuzey Irak

Abstract

Kuzey Irak’taki Kürt partiler ile yakınlaşma meselesi Kürt gurupların önemli aktör olarak ortaya çıktığı Irak’taki 2005 seçimlerinden sonra Türkiye’de Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri ve Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi arasında söylemsel bir çatışma alanına dönüştü. AK Parti hükümeti 2007’nin başlarında Kürt bölgesel yönetimi ile yakınlaşma beyanını açıklayınca, dönemin Genel Kurmay Başkanı Yaşar Büyükanıt açık bir şekilde bu politikayı eleştirdi. Büyükanıt Irak’taki Kürt partilerin PKK’yı desteklediğini gerekçe göstererek böylesi bir yakınlaşmaya karşı olduğunu açıkladı. Bu karşılıklı açıklamalar 2007 yılı içinde yaşanan AK Parti ve TSK arasındaki daha geniş ölçekli çatışmanın bir uzantısıydı. Söz konusu dış politika tartışması Türkiye’nin Cumhurbaşkanlığı seçimine doğru gittiği bir ortamda patlak vermişti. Bu makale şu sorulara cevap vermek amacıyla AK Parti ve TSK arasında Kuzey Irak üzerinden yaşanan gerilimi analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır: TSK ve AKP Kuzey Irak konusunda nasıl karşı karşıya geldiler? Hangi koşullar tarafları arasında Kuzey Irak’ı bir söylemsel çatışma zeminine dönüştürdü? Kuzey Irak’ın AK Parti ve TSK arasında o dönemde yaşanan güç mücadelesindeki işlevi ne oldu?

Keywords

AK Parti, Sivil-Asker İlişkileri, Kuzey Irak, Dış Politika

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