New Perspectives on Turkey-EU Relations

Chris Rumford

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781317850120
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book makes the case for looking afresh at Turkey-EU relations in order to appreciate the richness and complexity of a relationship which is now more than 50 years old and is still not close to reaching fulfilment. The contributors challenge conventional attempts to understand Turkey-EU relations, revealing that EU integration studies has been rather poor at understanding the global context within which Turkey-EU developments take place. More surprising perhaps, EU integration studies has also struggled to give sufficient weight to the potential of Turkey's domestic politics to shape EU enlargement. The volume attempts to correct these imbalances by offering both a global context and new perspectives on the drivers of domestic politics. It represents a shift from a narrow EU integration/enlargement agenda. Turkey's position vis-a-vis the EU cannot be adequately captured by simplistic notions of conditionality, harmonization, and an uncritical interpretation of Europeanization. A more rounded view of Turkey-EU relations is advanced based upon a broader context of European and global transformations. The contributions, collected here, offer an interpretation of Turkey-EU relations from a novel perspective, utilize a new framework of theory, and draw upon insights and perspectives from disciplines underrepresented in mainstream study of Turkey-EU relations.

This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary European Studies.

Introduction: New Perspectives on Turkey-EU Relations

Introduction

This special thematic issue of the Journal of Contemporary European Studies deals with a familiar topic—Turkey-EU relations—but approaches it in a variety of different ways. The underlying idea is that we need to look at Turkey and the EU afresh in order to appreciate the richness and complexity of a relationship which is now more than fifty years old (a fact alone that suggests no ordinary relationship) and is still not close to reaching fulfilment (Cakir, 2011). To this end, the articles collected here challenge conventional attempts to understand Turkey-EU relations. They reveal that EU integration studies has been rather poor at developing a global context (or even demonstrating a global awareness). More surprising perhaps integration studies has also struggled to give sufficient weight to the potential of Turkey’s domestic politics to shape EU enlargement. Taken together, the seven articles contained in this issue attempt to correct these imbalances by offering both a global context and new perspectives on the drivers of domestic politics.

The development of the EU, its enlargement and future trajectory is often conveyed in developmental and/or quasi-teleological terms. EU integration is seen as the destiny for the continent and each country (including non-members) is compelled to seek a place in the unfolding order. Turkey’s attempt to slot into the EU project is generally viewed as having been unsuccessful, for one of two interrelated reasons. The first is that the EU has been guilty of ‘shifting the goalposts’ in respect of Turkey’s accession criteria. The second is that Turkey has found it impossible to hit the moving target represented by the EU’s changing accession criteria either because of a blatant (at times) refusal to conform to EU requirements (protection of minorities, human rights) or because of Turkey’s rather inadequate assessments of the opportunity for EU accession, such as still seeking Customs Union in the 1990s while former Warsaw Pact countries were negotiating accession agreements: what has been termed, ‘Ankara Agreement Syndrome’ (Öniş, 2000).

The articles here represent a shift away from a narrow EU integration agenda. Turkey’s position vis-à-vis the EU cannot be adequately captured by simplistic notions of conditionality, harmonization and an uncritical interpretation of Europeanization. The argument here is that an EU integration studies agenda will only tell part of the Turkey–EU story. What is required in order to provide a fuller account is a more rounded view of Turkey–EU relations, one which places it in a broader context of European and global transformations. This special thematic issue advances a European studies interpretation of Turkey–EU relations and as such offers a much needed alternative to the dominant interpretations emanating from EU integration studies. What distinguishes this European studies approach?

First, European studies offers greater multidisciplinarity. Whereas integration studies tends to be dominated by political scientists and international relations scholars European studies embraces a host of disciplinary perspectives. The broadening of the field (in this volume) to include contributions from sociology, cultural studies, linguistics and education provides much more variety than is usually the case with integration studies. Too often, EU integration studies insists that if other disciplines wish to participate they must do so by following an agenda framed by political scientists, and in fact it is often the case that scholars in these disciplines are happy to participate on these terms (Favell & Guiraudon, 2011).

Second, European studies poses a broader range of questions about Europe. European studies deals primarily with the transformation of Europe, of which EU integration is one part. European studies is centrally concerned with the question of cultural identities, of Europe’s relation to the rest of the world, of transnational communities, of cross-border mobilities and networks, of colonial legacies and of the heritage of a multiplicity of European peoples. The argument here is this is a potentially productive context within which to study Turkey-EU relations. European studies aims to study Europe in the broadest and most inclusive sense possible and it should never presume to be able to answer the question ‘What is Europe?’ in definitive, once-and-for-all terms (Biebuyck & Rumford, forthcoming).

Third, understanding Europe’s changing role in world politics needs to be prioritized. Caricaturing EU studies we can say that it has been rather inward-looking and tends to see Europe as separate from the rest of the world. European studies encourages approaches to studying Europe that place it within a global framework. European studies is concerned with exploring the transformations which have shaped and continue to shape Europe, both internally and in the wider world.

The Articles

The articles which comprise this thematic special issue each contribute to the European studies agendaby offering an interpretation of Turkey–EU relations from a novel perspective or by utilizing a new framework of theory, or by drawing upon insights and perspectives from disciplines underrepresented in mainstream study of Turkey–EU relations.

Nora Fisher Onar draws upon speech act theory in her paper ‘Constructing Turkey Inc.’ in order to illuminate the foreign and domestic policy choices of Turkey’s ruling AK Party. This highlights a key theme common to several of the articles: the need to pay much more attention to the dynamics of domestic politics in Turkey, which is much more influential than often thought in shaping the course of Turkey–EU relations. Fisher Onar is particularly concerned to understand the apparent contradictions in AKP’s position as revealed in the party’s discourses of democracy, Islam and Ottomanism, and the titular ‘Turkey Inc.’ an attempt to constitute Turkey as a soft power hub. Fisher Onar finds that these discourses are not contradictory but are designed to appeal to different constituencies of support. The article makes an important and original contribution to understanding AKP as much more than a party with ‘Islamic leanings.’

Didem Buhari-Gulmez utilizes globalization theory, in the form of ‘world polity theory’ alternatively known as the Stanford School’s sociological institutionalism, in order to investigate the link between Europeanization and globalization. Her exploration of ombudsmanship in Turkey, the first time such a study has been attempted, places Turkey’s relationship with the EU in the context of ‘world society’. She finds, contrary to received wisdom, that global culture is driving Europeanization, and that Europe itself is being constructed globally. This important contribution not only places Turkey within ‘world society’ but also offers a particularly sophisticated reading of the way Europe is being shaped by global forces.

Adopting a Nietzschean approach, Ed Webb, in his article ‘Resisting anamnesis’, investigates Turkey’s selective teaching of national history in schools. The curriculum, as established under Ataturk focuses on ancient Turks, the Ottomans, Enlightenment Europe and the establishment of the Republic. It stops at the Second World War. Turkey’s history as a democracy punctuated by coups, its experiences as a member of NATO, the rise of political Islam and Kurdish nationalism are all outside the curriculum. In this original analysis Webb contextualizes the self-conscious deployment of history by Turkey’s elites and highlights the role of forgetting in this construction of history.

Drawing upon a very different philosophical tradition, Johanna Nykänen offers a Bakhtinian reading of EU–Turkey relations. Bakhtin’s concept of dialogism is deployed as a basis for arguing that Turkey should not be passive, like many previous candidate countries, in its dealings with the EU. Essentially, Turkey should be able to ‘talk back’, to the EU. In this way, a genuine and meaningful dialogue between Turkey and the EU can be established. Nykänen makes explicit a theme which is also present in other contributions; that Turkey–EU relations are normally assumed to consist of ‘one way traffic’, with the EU as sender and Turkey as receiver of directives and requirements for political, economic and social change. Nykänen reveals the limitations of these assumptions and outlines the advantages that greater dialogue could bring.

Gulay Icoz offers an original interpretation of Turkey–EU relations from a ‘Historical Institutionalist’ perspective, a framework hitherto not utilized in Turkey–EU scholarship. She outlines how the Historical Institutionalist concepts of ‘path dependence’ and ‘punctuated equilibrium’ reveal the importance of domestic political institutions, particularly the National Security Council (MGK), in determining the trajectory of Turkey–EU relations. The strength of this article lies in the re-interpretation of familiar historical episodes and the shift in the locus of Turkey–EU studies which is required to understand the forces shaping Turkey’s EU candidature.

Bilgin Ayata demonstrates that transnational politics can have an important influence on domestic policy choices. She investigates the way in which the Kurdish diaspora, particularly the political entrepreneurs behind Kurdish broadcasting, has shaped Turkey’s policy towards the Kurds. She demonstrates that Turkey’s decision to offer a domestic TV channel broadcasting in Kurdish is a response to transnational media activism. In a bold analysis Ayata demonstrates that the motor of policy choices and political change may be located beyond national borders (and not necessarily driven by EU interests).

Hasan Turunc locates Turkey–EU relations within the broader context of global social and political transformations. Working with the concept of ‘post-westernization’ he seeks to challenge orthodox interpretations of Turkey’s EU vocation by exploring the limitation of accounts based on dichotomies and cleavages: East/West, traditional/modern, secular/Islam. Turunc demonstrates a command of both the detail of domestic politics and the broad sweep of global transformations. Understanding the post-westernization of EU–Turkey relations is revealed as the key to understanding both Turkey’s changing place in Europe, and Europe’s role in the world.

In addition to the thematic set of articles, this issue also contains an article by Jeanne Fagnani and Antoine Math on child care policies in France. The authors argue that, for all the rhetoric devoted to the promotion of ‘freedom of choice’ for parents in the French childcare sector, evidence suggests a different set of priorities; namely a primary desire to bring more mothers into the workforce while at the same time satisfying the increasing demands placed on employees through the development of flexible work schedules and in particular non-standard work hours.

The issue is rounded off with a sizeable set of book reviews.

Chris Rumford

References

Biebuyck,W. & Rumford,C. (forthcoming, 2012) Many Europes: rethinking multiplicity. European Journal of Social Theory.

Cakir,A. E. (Ed.) (2011) Fifty Years of EU-Turkey Relations: A Sisyphean Story (Basingstoke:Palgrave).

Favell,A. & Guiraudon,V. (2011) Sociology of the European Union (Basingstoke:Palgrave).

Öniş,Z. (2000) Luxembourg, Helsinki and Beyond: Towards an Interpretation of Recent Turkey-EU Relations. Paper presented at the annual Conference of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES),University of Cambridge,England, 2–5 July.

Constructing Turkey Inc.: The Discursive Anatomy of a Domestic and Foreign Policy Agenda

NORA FISHER ONAR*

Bahçeşehir University Istanbul, Turkey

ABSTRACT The article draws on speech act theory to argue that Turkey’s ruling justice and Development Party (AKP) wields a discursive repertoire that consists of four main narratives: a democratization, a (post-)Islamist, an Ottomanist and a Turkey Inc. story. It examines the illocutionary intent, that is, the ways in which discourses are used to co-ordinate policy and strategically project appeals to specific constituencies. It also examines the perlocutionary uptake of these discourses, namely, the ways in which they are received by target audiences. This makes it possible to unpack the tensions which obtain within and across narratives, and account for the apparent contradictions in AKP positions on a range of issues. The overarching argument of the article is that the party’s prime purpose is to establish Turkey Inc., that is to position Turkey as a (soft) power hub and gateway for transactions across its multiple regions and hinterlands, the other discourses in the repertoire, the article contends, are harnessed to this end.

Introduction

In the past decade, Turkey has undergone a dramatic transformation. The secularist elite that controlled the country since its foundation in 1923 has been displaced by a new establishment representing formerly peripheral elements under the leadership of the pro-religious Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi AKP). In addition to controlling the Government, the parliament, and the presidency, and dislodging the military from its longstanding custodianship of the national project, the party recently received a mandate from 58 per cent of the electorate to pursue constitutional reform. This will permit it-inter alia—to transform the last bastion of the old elite, the judiciary. Meanwhile, EU accession-oriented reforms undertaken in the first half of the 2000s have opened the door to vigorous debates on once taboo topics like the domestic Kurdish and Armenian questions. A pro-active foreign policy agenda has also served the cause of rapprochement with formerly problematic neighbours such as Greece, Syria and Iran, and unprecedented if unconsummated activism in relations with Nicosia and Yerevan. AKP success has also been a function of a booming economy. In the wake of IMF-instituted stru ctural reforms, Turkey has averaged 6 per cent growth and attracted up to 20 billion dollars investment per year, up from a scant billion in the 1990s. This has enabled it to climb the ranks of the G20, with some analysts anticipating the country will have the world’s tenth largest economy by 2050 (The Economist, 2010a). The political and economic transformation—perhaps most palpable in rising urban hubs across Anatolia—has given a heightened sense of confidence to much of the population. In their view, Turkey finally appears to be fulfilling the proverbial ‘potential’ about which observers of the country waxed, unrequited, for decades.

Others are disconcerted by the altered state of affairs. These include many within the old elite and their interlocutors in American and European policy circles. Quietude is also discernible among groups whose aspirations mesh at best awkwardly with those of the AKP such as secular/nationalist Kurds, heterodox Alevis, gays and lesbians and the dwindling non-Muslim communities. Ambivalence emanates from at least two sources. One is anxiety over the fate of secularism given the pro-religious orientation of the ruling party and its electorally hegemonic constituency. The second, inter-related concern is over Turkey’s trajectory and the depth of AKP commitment to the West. Though the AKP has sought to assuage such fears, its habit of mixing democratic, conservative-religious, Ottomanist and mercantilist metaphors has left many observers confused.

This tableau has sent observers scrambling for a turn-of-phrase to capture the substance of Turkey’s transformation and assess its promise and challenges. One label is ‘neo-Ottomanism’ which flags the fact that AKP-led Turkey is embracing the Ottoman past as inspiration for a more pluralistic but also more conservative domestic order on one hand, and a pro-active, multi-regional foreign policy towards former Ottoman territories on the other (Fisher Onar, 2009a, 2009b). A second trope suggests that Turkey is ‘switching axes’, that is, abandoning its longstanding commitment to the West in favour of the East, especially the Islamic world. This formula resonates with those disturbed by Turkey’s outreach to neighbours like Syria and Iran and the concomitant downturn in Turkish-Israeli relations. While such frames shed light on aspects of Turkey’s transformation—and the anxieties it engenders—they are far from sufficient. One reason is simply because the AKP rejects both labels. It eschews the term ‘neo-Ottomanism’ because of its neo-imperial connotations, and refutes the claim...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• 1. Introduction: New Perspectives on Turkey–EU Relations
• 2. Constructing Turkey Inc.: The Discursive Anatomy of a Domestic and Foreign Policy Agenda
• 3. Ombudsmanship and Turkey’s Europeanization in ‘World Society’
• 4. Resisting Anamnesis: A Nietzschean Analysis of Turkey’s National History Education
• 5. A Bakhtinian Approach to EU–Turkey Relations
• 6. Turkey’s Path to EU Membership: An Historical Institutionalist Perspective
• 7. Kurdish Transnational Politics and Turkey’s Changing Kurdish Policy: The Journey of Kurdish Broadcasting from Europe to Turkey
• 8. The Post-westernisation of EU–Turkey Relations
• Index