Facilitative nationalism: an exploration of Turkish foreign policy towards Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan

This thesis explores Turkicness in Turkish state/national identity and its impact on Turkish foreign policy towards Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Both Turkicness in Turkish national identity and Turkey's relations with the Turkic republics are relatively understudied. A more developed interest in international relations scholarship has been Turkey's relations with the West or the Middle East, while studies of nationalism have focused predominantly on religious (Islamic) or secular aspects of Turkish national identity. This thesis combines international relations theory with the study of nationalism to examine the impact of Turkicness in Turkish foreign policy towards Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan between the years 2002 and 2015. In doing so, it offers a historical exploration of the emergence and integration of the Turkic element of Turkish national identity into Turkish foreign policy. Taking a constructivist approach to the study of state identity in foreign policy, this thesis argues that the shared Turkic identity between Turkey and the two Turkic republics has facilitated cooperation in Turkish foreign policy. This facilitative function of Turkicness is conceptually framed within the notion of 'facilitative nationalism': the main conceptual innovation of the thesis. The notion of facilitative nationalism is elaborated against the background of the two case studies that share elements of their national identities. Demonstrating how Turkic identity has been instrumental in the nation-building efforts of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, this thesis explains the facilitative function of Turkicness in Turkish foreign policy towards the two states. Even though Turkey and the Turkic republics formally promote multiculturalism and civic nationalism, their bilateral relations are driven by Turkic ethnonational identity. The embrace of such strategic rationality by Turkish policymakers in the studied period has resulted in the creation of an amicable space for strategic manoeuvring and a sphere of influence for Turkey in Central Asia and the Caucasus. The contribution of this thesis to knowledge is in presenting an exploration of Turkish foreign policy from an understudied perspective and within an understudied timeframe; in enhancing our understanding of the role of Turkicness in Turkish foreign policy in the region from the perspective of constructivism and through the notion of facilitative nationalism; and in providing empirical insights into bilateral relations with Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan through a small set of original interviews and through historical/archival research.