A Transnational Account of Turkish Foreign Policy by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030428976
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Transnational Ties and Kin-States

The literature on the transnational dimension of civil wars underlines transnational ethnic kin as an important factor in starting and facilitating civil wars (Gürses 2015). Some studies argue that ethnic ties that transcend national boundaries accelerate the conflict by providing shelter as well as human and material resources to rebels (Gürses 2015: 142), whereas some other studies underline the role of peaceful kin-state policies.14 In sum, it can be concluded that kin-states establish ethnic ties with their co-ethnics based mainly on the two broad motivations of national identity and national interest (Wolff 2003a, b: 3).15

In order to act as a kin-state of its co-ethnics, the state’s political elites should believe that they are members of an imagined ethnonational community. Moreover, using this nationalist rhetoric for co-ethnics can also provide them with domestic support at home (Nagle 2013: 293). Holsti underlines that “reasons of affinity and sentiment rather than … power or more hard-headed cost-benefit analyses” motivate states (Holsti 1996: 129). However, it should be underlined that kin-states do not act only with affective reasons such as ethnic, religious, or ideological motivations. National interests of kin-states, in other words, their domestic and foreign policy priorities are also important motivation sources (King and Melvin 2000: 133–134). States develop kin-state roles for their kin as a result of their own domestic policies and/or in order to strengthen their geopolitical interests.16 They use different tools in achieving their aims, ranging from political to military support, and even to irredentism (King and Melvin 2000). As Salehyan underlines, minority groups also benefit in multiple ways from protective policies of their kin-states (Salehyan 2006). In the New Middle East Cold War framework, the Syrian Civil War displays “how state and non-state actors needed each other to achieve their interests” (Risse-Kappen 1995: 281), and provides a fertile ground for both minorities and kin-states in the region to establish ethnic alliances in furthering their aims. I now turn to an analysis of how transnational ethnic ties with Syrian Turkomans are instrumentalized in Turkey’s Syria policy within this context.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.