Two-dimensional populism in AKP’s foreign policy: the case of the Cyprus problem
Abstract
This paper characterizes the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) populist foreign policy through Brubaker’s two-dimensional model of populism. It demonstrates that while AKP pursued anti-establishment policies at home, its foreign policy operated in a vertical dimension, and while it adopted a nationalist and anti-Western orientation, it shifted to a horizontal dimension. This paper operationalizes this model and investigates AKP’s changing positions on the Cyprus problem as a case study. It argues that while AKP supported a federal solution within the framework of vertical dimension in populist foreign policy, it later adopted a two-state solution operating in the horizontal dimension.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Turkey's Politics and Society
Populism
Right-Wing Movements
Cyprus History
Politics
Society
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Turkish Studies
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1007–1034
- Publication date
- 6 March 2026
- Language
- EN