Publication

This commentary explains why foreign policy played such an important role in Turkey's June 2015 general elections, in which the Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its majority in parliament. More specifically, the commentary’s author focuses on 1) the troubled nature of Turkish foreign policy since the late 2000s, and 2) how Turkey's response to ISIS's besieging of the Syrian-Kurdish town of Kobane, as well as Ankara's policy towards Kurdish forces fighting against ISIS, affected the vote of the country’s Kurdish minority and others. Finally, the author discusses what parliamentary coalitions may eventually appear and what they might mean for the future of Turkey's foreign policy.