Debating Security in Turkey: Challenges and Changes in the Twenty-First Century.

• Author: Kibaroglu, Mustafa
• Position: Book review

Debating Security in Turkey: Challenges and Changes in the Twenty-First Century

Edited by Ebru Canan-Sokullu

Plymouth: Lexington Books, 2013, 347 pages, ISBN 9780739148716.

INTEREST in Turkey and its foreign and security policies has grown significantly in the political and scholarly circles in the world, especially since the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi AKP) came to power with the November 2002 elections. The AKP's electoral success continued in the subsequent elections in 2007 and 2011 with an increasing percentage of votes, which was unprecedented in the history of the Turkish Republic.

One particular reason why Turkey attracted much attention in the world was because, in its first years in power, the AKP was easily categorized, both in the media and in academia, mainly in the West, as an "Islamic" party with a hidden agenda that aimed at drifting Turkey away from its mainstream foreign and security policies that have long been anchored in the Western alliance, thereby turning Turkey's face toward the Middle East and the Islamic world beyond it.

The stance of the AKP governments with regard to a number of thorny issue areas has given rise to a number of questions in the minds of the scholars and experts in all parts of the world with respect to the unprecedented level of involvement of Turkey, such as the security situation in Iraq and the special relations developed with the Kurdish north; the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Palestine problem with particular emphasis on the situation in Gaza; the ambiguous nuclear program of Iran and the attempts to mediate between the "P5+1" countries and the Iranian clergy; and the turmoil in Syria and the comprehensive support given to the rebel groups.

Such a situation clearly necessitated a commensurate number of publications that would properly analyze the foreign and security policies of the AKP governments. However, it is difficult to argue that this need was adequately and timely satisfied by the Turkish scholarly and intellectual community, despite the fact that today, when compared to 10 or 15 years ago, there is a large number of scholars, experts as well as intellectuals who display a genuine interest in these subjects. Many of whom are indeed endowed with the necessary capabilities to do so, such as advanced linguistic skills as well as academic degrees in Political Science and International Relations disciplines earned from the world's leading academic...