The Rational Actor Approach in the Kurdish Initiative’s Demonstration of Ontological Security in Turkish Foreign Policy the-rational-actor-approach-in-the-kurdish-initiative-s-demonstration-of-ontological-security-in-turkish-foreign-policy Volume 7, Issue 1 Research Article 2026 7 The Kurdish Initiative, led by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), aimed to integrate the Kurds who constitute the majority in many provinces of the Southeast but are considered a minority within the national framework of the Republic of Türkiye into the system and to reduce the influence of organizations like the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), which has been a source of conflict in the country for thirty years. However, in later stages, the AKP administration pursued a rational actor approach on behalf of the Republic of Türkiye, ultimately seeking to prevent the establishment of a Kurdish state, whether through cross-border operations in Syria or occasional targeted operations against high-ranking PKK leaders in Northern Iraq.

 

]]> Akarca, A. T., & Tansel, A. (2015). Voter reaction to government incompetence and corruption
related to the 1999 earthquakes in Türkiye. IZA Discussion Paper No. 9162. Institute of Labor
Economics (IZA).


Anadolu Ajansı. (2021, February 14). Teröristbaşı Öcalan’ın siyasi sığınma hayalleri 22 yıl önce
Türkiye’nin operasyonuyla son buldu. https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/turkiye/teroristbasi-ocalanin-
siyasi-siginma-hayalleri-22-yil-once-turkiyenin-operasyonuyla-son-buldu/2144256


Bajalan, D. (2016). The Kurds in the Ottoman Empire: 1830–1914. Cambridge University Press.


Balcı, B., & Yeşiltaş, M. (2018). The Sèvres syndrome and Turkish political culture: Nationalism and
security narratives. Boğaziçi University Press.


Barkey, H. J., & Fuller, G. E. (1998). Türkiye’s Kurdish question. Rowman & Littlefield.


Bengio, O., & Eppel, M. (2016). A people without a state: The Kurds from the rise of Islam to the dawn
of nationalism. Lynne Rienner Publishers.


Bozarslan, H. (2008). Kurdish revolts in Türkiye, 1925–1938. Maisonneuve & Larose.


Galtung, J. (1969). Violence, peace, and peace research. Journal of Peace Research, 6(3), 167–191.
https://doi.org/10.1177/002234336900600301


Giddens, A. (1990). The consequences of modernity. Stanford University Press.


Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age. Stanford
University Press.


Glenny, M. (2012). The Balkans, 1804–2012: Nationalism, war and the great powers. Granta Books.


Gunter, M. M. (1997). The Kurds in Türkiye: A political review. Routledge.


Gunter, M. M. (2013). The Kurds and ISIS: The implications for regional security. Middle East
Policy, 20(3), 84–95. https://doi.org/10.1111/mepo.12037


Güneş, C. (2012). The Kurdish national movement in Turkey: From protest to resistance. Routledge.


Güvenç, B. (1993). Türk kimliği. Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları.


Habertürk. (2009, May 11). PKK barış istiyor. https://www.haberturk.com/gundem/haber/
146152-pkk-baris-istiyor3


Inati, S. C. (Ed.). (2003). Iraq: Its history, people, and politics. Humanity Books.


Jabar, F., & Mansour, R. (Eds.). (2019). The Kurds in a changing Middle East: History, politics, and
representation. Bloomsbury.


Jwaideh, W. (1999). The Kurdish nationalist movement: Its origins and development (Originally published
1961). İletişim Yayınları.

Kaplan, M. L. (2019). Foreign support, miscalculation, and conflict escalation: Iraqi Kurdish self-
determination in perspective. Ethnopolitics, 18(1), 29–45.


Keyman, E. F., & Öniş, Z. (2007). Turkish politics in a globalizing world: Economy, democracy,
and EU accession. Mediterranean Politics, 12(2), 211–229.


Kirişci, K. (2004). The Kurdish question and Turkish foreign policy. In D. Keridis & L. Martin
(Eds.), The future of Turkish foreign policy. MIT Press.


Kurubaş, E. (2004). Kürt sorununun uluslararası boyutu ve Türkiye. Nobel Yayınları.


Laing, R. D. (1960). The divided self: An existential study in sanity and madness. Pelican Books.


Leezenberg, M. (2008). The Kurdish question in Türkiye: The AKP and the path to peace. Brill.


Marcus, A. (2007). Blood and belief: The PKK and the Kurdish fight for independence. NYU Press.


Madhar Ahmad, K. (1994). Kurdistan during the First World War. Saqi Books.


McDowall, D. (2004). A modern history of the Kurds (3rd ed.). I. B. Tauris.


Mitzen, J. (2006). Ontological security in world politics: State identity and the security
dilemma. European Journal of International Relations, 12(3), 341–370. https://doi.
org/10.1177/1354066106067346


Natali, D. (2010). The Kurdish quasi state: Development and dependency in post Gulf War Iraq. Syracuse
University Press.


O’Shea, M. T. (2004). Trapped between the map and reality: Geography and perceptions of Kurdistan.
Routledge.


Pelletiere, S. C. (1984). The Kurds: An unstable element in the Gulf. Westview Press.


Rumelili, B. (2015). Ontological security and state identity: Türkiye and its Kurdish issue. Routledge.


Smith, J. A. (2020). The concept of identity in modern social theory. Cambridge University Press.


The Washington Post. (2002, July 16). No state for Iraqi Kurds, U.S. aide assures Turks. https://
www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/07/17/no-state-for-iraqi-kurds-us-aideassures-
turks/a1f50ae7-1032-4241-8e17-c4cc981d8232/


van Bruinessen, M. (1992). Agha, sheikh, and state: The social and political structures of Kurdistan.
Zed Books.

Yassin, B. (1995). Vision or reality? The Kurds in the policy of the Great Powers, 1941–1947.


Yeni Şafak. (2024, October 23). Dört ülkede ‘kaçacak delik’ arayan Abdullah Öcalan nasıl yakalanmıştı?
https://www.yenisafak.com/gundem/dort-ulkede-kacak-delik-arayan-abdullah-ocalan-
nasil-yakalanmisti-4652290

]]> Republic of Türkiye, AKP, PKK, rational actor 2026-04-01 https://jlp.ibupress.com/articles/the-rational-actor-approach-in-the-kurdish-initiative-s-demonstration-of-ontological-security-in-turkish-foreign-policy 1 71-87 10.69648/XZZB2660 en CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ https://jlp.ibupress.com/file/Eg5ofzd2sMF/ibu-journal-jlp-7-1-6.pdf İsa Kasum Ankara University, Ankara, Türkiye true Journal of Law And Politics 2671-342X 2671-3438 Balkan University Press https://jlp.ibupress.com