THE ANALYSIS OF THE DRIVING FACTORS OF TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY FROM ASSERTIVENESS TO PRAGMATISM IN CASE OF TURKEY - ISRAEL RECONCILIATION ON THE MAVI MARMARA FLOTILLA INCIDENT (2010 -2016)

Abstract

Turkey and Israel had a good diplomatic relations and cooperated in any spheres for decades since 1949, but the incident of the attack towards Turkish flotilla, Mavi Marmara in 2010 by the Israeli Defense Forces, which was in a humanitarian mission to Gaza led to the death of some Turkish people, and the incident made relations between the two states deteriorated. Turkey downgraded its diplomatic status with Israel into minimum level and severed all forms of cooperation with Israel. They required some demands to Israel as a condition for returning a normal diplomatic relations, and if Israel did not fulfill all the demands, the relationship between the two countries will never be normal. But the change of behavior occurred in Turkey where they remained to reconcile the relationship with Israel, despite conditions that are enforceable to Israel has not been completed. The Factors influencing changes in Turkey's foreign policy in reconciling with Israel will be analyzed in this paper explicitly. Foreign policy case study will use one theory approach to foreign policy, namely, "Rational Choice Theory". Period of time taken for this study were taken from 2010 until 2016, precisely after Mavi Marmara attack in 2010 until the reconciliation took place in 2016. This research is a descriptive and analytical uses a qualitative approach through bilateral relations between Turkey and Israel