Keele Research Repository

Despite the shadows cast by their history, Turkey has developed relations with the Kurdish government to the level of a strategic partnership within the last decade, following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This thesis contextualizes this unexpected rapprochement from a globalist perspective. To do so, the research first identifies and analyses important developments taking place during 2003-2013, then it seeks the motives that led to the emergence of this strategic partnership between these two regional actors, first at regional, then at global level. In conclusion, it argues that it was mainly the power shift in global political system that led Turkey to abandon its traditional policy towards the Kurdish Region of Iraq.