Between Human and State Security: Turkey's Syria Policy under the Justice and Development Party (AKP)

Since 2011, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has sought to portray the country as an emerging humanitarian and peacebuilding power, mobilising the country’s diplomatic and foreign policy resources to project the AKP’s vision of Turkey’s Islamic identity through the lens of its duty to help. An analysis of the official narratives on the state’s humanitarian and peacebuilding policies as they have evolved in the Syrian conflict highlights the tensions between a human security approach aimed at projecting Turkey as a normative humanitarian power and a state security approach based on the AKP government’s perceived national security needs.
Keywords: Turkish humanitarian policy; Turkey; Syria; AKP