Anti-Westernism in Turkey’s Neo-Ottomanist Foreign Policy under Erdoğan

Abstract

After 2013, Turkey’s foreign policy has been noted for neo-Ottomanist rhetoric and anti-Western discourse, which resulted in the deterioration of relations with the West. To disclose the patterns of anti-Westernism in Turkish foreign policy, this paper analyzes official speeches of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan given at international meetings and events from 2014 to 2021. Based on critical constructivism, which underlines the co-constitutive relationship between identity and foreign policy, and the role of the Other in identity construction, this article demonstrates how the Western Other has been used by Erdoğan in building Turkish Ottoman identity. This article articulates the anti-Western notion of neo-Ottomanism and argues that Erdoğan’s anti-Western discourse bears the Islamic undertone and relies on the delineation of the Turkish-Ottoman Self from the Western Self. Referring to Turkish people in his speeches, Erdoğan invariably uses positive words like “justice,” “toleration” and “compassion,” while representing the West as “racist,” “imperialist,” “colonialist,” “xenophobic,” “Islam hating,” “anti-immigrant,” “unjust,” “supporting terrorism,” and “imposing double standards.”