Türkiye's Africa Policy Between National Interest and International Responsibility

10th International Mardin Artuklu Scientific Researches Conference, Mardin, Türkiye, 19 - 21 Mayıs 2023, ss.830-843

ABSTRACT

The assumption that there is no place for ethics/morality in foreign policy is dominant in

mainstream international relations approaches. In the literature, some emphasize the

impossibility of an ethical foreign policy and argue that it is a hypocritical deception. The

argument that global powers use the rhetoric highlighting ethical/moral foreign policy as a

cover for their interest-oriented actions has found its basis in the emergence of situations since

the late 1990s. While the issue of ethics in global politics remains controversial in academia

and politics, the Justice and Development Party (the AK Party), which has given a new direction

to Turkish foreign policy since it came to power in 2002, has emphasized ethics in its discourse.

This study analyzes the AK Party's foreign policy discourse, rejecting a realpolitik

understanding divorced from values and principles, particularly through its Africa policy. This

study's starting point is that an ethical understanding of foreign policy can be formed without

drifting into "moral absolutism" and "pop realism", the positions coined by Chris Brown, a

prominent figure in the discipline of IR. The study searches for the practical feasibility of this

philosophical debate in the AK Party's Africa policy. It approaches the issue with the argument

that the combination of ethical-oriented foreign policy and interest-based understanding

manifests itself most in the policy on Africa. The AK Party shapes its foreign policy with the

identity it constructs by referring to the mission and responsibility that Türkiye's history and

geography impose on it. Hence, it strives to combine its strategy of becoming an effective

regional and global power with the aforementioned moral emphases in the African context. This

situation exemplifies that the dynamic between ethics and self-interest in global politics cannot

be ignored and thus contributes to the debates in the literature.