Influence of Political Culture upon the Turkish Foreign Policy: Evolution of Kemalist Political Culture

Political culture contains the rules, understandings and principles related to the process ofpolitical life. Especially with the effect of political socialization, the leaders internalize the political culture,mediating between political culture and foreign policy. Turkish political culture has also considerableeffect upon the Turkish foreign policy. Kemalist political culture played an influentical effect upon determinationof Turkish foreign policy between 1923 and 1950. But, in the course of time fundamentalelements of the Kemalist political culture are reinterpreted by the political elites. Justice and DevelopmentParty, while respecting the orthodox Kemalist political culture, made concrete contributions to the evolutionprocess of the Kemalist political culture similar to those of President Ozal. JD Party on the onehand reinterpreted the elements of the Kemalist political culture, including Westernization, secularism,nationalism and strong state mentality in favor of the Ozal’s concerns, on the other hand strictly wentaway from the National Outlook of Necmettin Erbakan. JD Party’s interpretation of political culturehas had considerable impact upon the current government’s foreign policy.