@article{2018,title={THE HISTORY AND TRANSFORMATION OF TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY},abstractNode={Turkish foreign policy has been changing and transforming ever since the country has founded. These changes have led to claims that Turkish foreign policy, which has been shaped by Turkey's Western orientation and pro-status quo stance until the AKP era, developed a new foreign policy orientation. Additionally, as well as the opportunities brought by the end of the Cold War, the economic growth and relatively stable political atmosphere provided during the JDP administration was effective in bringing about this change. Turkey aimed to benefit at a maximum level from its extended opportunities by using its active and multi-dimensional foreign policy and hereby to turn into a major power having a say in its region. This study intends to discuss the history, the reasons and whether the aforementioned change has reached to the point of an "axis shift" as stated in the existing literature. Charles F. Hermann's foreign policy change was used in order to reach a conclusion at that point. Finally, the thesis concluded that the change in Turkish foreing policy reflected a "program change" rather than an a shift of axis or an international orientation change.},author={Erdal FIRAT},year={2018},journal={The Journal of Social Sciences}}