End of jouissance, start of resentment: a Lacanian critical security approach to Turkey’s relations with the West

ABSTRACT

Believing that the emotional turn in IR would benefit from psychoanalysis greatly, this study applies the Lacanian concept of ‘jouissance’, the emotional IR concept of ‘resentment’, and ‘emancipation’ as part of the Welsh School in IR to Turkey’s relations with the EU, by pointing out a visible move from former to the latter since the Helsinki Summit in 1999 until today. As known, jouissance refers to physical and/or intellectual joy, whereas resentment roots in being treated unfairly. By dividing the period mentioned above into four, 1999–2005; the period of jouissance, 2005–2011; end of jouissance, 2011–2016; transition to resentment, and 2016–2023; emancipation, the paper analyzes leader discourses of both sides through EDA, the current President of Turkey; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; and the leaders of the European Council and European Commission, to unravel the transition. For Turkey, the AKP government utilised discourses that transitioned from jouissance to emancipation, especially after 2005, whereas the EU discourses started with jouissance and moved onto emancipation and then neutrality. As the recipient side of the accession, the EU discourses remain on the technical accession negotiations and the issue of migration after 2011 rather than engaging in any emotional attachment to Turkey’s membership process.

KEYWORDS:

• Turkey
• EU
• emancipation
• jouissance
• resentment

Acknowledgments

An earlier version of this article was presented at the EISA PEC 2023 Conference. I would like to express my gratitude to the feedback I received at the conference. Finally, I would like to thank Assoc. Prof. Helin Sarı Ertem, Dr. Umut Can Adısönmez, Assoc. Prof. Laçin İdil Öztığ, Ceren Melis Kılıç, Nuri Kıcıroğlu, and Elif Ezgi Keleş for their valuable feedback and criticism.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Main sources of the texts are the official website of the presidency of the Turkish Republic (for the period between 2014 and 2023) and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey’s edition of prime ministers’ speeches at the parliament (for the period between 2002 and 2014). For the EU side, the main websites of the European Commission, the European Council, and news sources are utilised. The sources are cited in the text and the bibliography.

2. [Translated by the author from Turkish to English] The Grand National Assembly of ‘Türkiye’. 2014. ‘Tuesday, March 18, 2003, Presentation Speech of the Program of the 59th Government of the Republic (I. Erdogan Government)’. For similar line of discourses, please see “The Grand National Assembly of ‘Türkiye’. 2014. ‘Monday, December 20, 2004, Presentation Speech on the Draft Fiscal Year Budget Law (I. Erdogan Government)’.; “The Grand National Assembly of ‘Türkiye’. 2014. ‘Wednesday, December 14, 2005, Presentation Speech on the Draft Budget Law 2006 (I. Erdogan Government’., and “The Grand National Assembly of ‘Türkiye’. 2014. ‘Tuesday, March 18, 2003 Introductory Speech on the Program of the 59th Government of the Republic (I. Erdogan Government)’.

3. European Commission. 2004. ‘Romano Prodi President of the European Commission Official visit in Turkey Turkish Grand National Assembly Ankara, 15 January 2004’. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/SPEECH_04_16

4. [Translated by the author from Turkish to English] The Grand National Assembly of ‘Türkiye’. 2014. ‘Monday, 14 December 2009, Presentation Speech on the 2010 Fiscal Year Budget Law (III. Erdogan Government)’. For similar line of discourses, please see: ‘The Grand National Assembly of “Türkiye”. 2014. Friday, 8 July 2011, Presentation Speech on the Program of the 61st Government of the Republic (III. Erdogan Government)’., “The Grand National Assembly of ‘Türkiye’. 2014. ‘Monday, December 13, 2010 Presentation Speech on the 2011 Fiscal Year Budget Law (III. Erdogan Government)’.

5. EURACTIV. 2012. ‘Barroso pushes Turkey on reforms’. https://www.euractiv.com/section/enlargement/news/barroso-pushes-turkey-on-reforms/

6. [Translated by the author from Turkish to English] Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye. n.d. ‘Speech at the Seventh Ambassadors Conference − 06.01.2015’. https://www.tccb.gov.tr/konusmalar/353/2970/yedinci-buyukelciler-konferansinda-yaptiklari-konusma (Accessed 28 August 2022). For similar line of discourses, please see: Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye. n.d. ‘Speech at the 7th Atlantic Council Energy and Economy Summit − 19.11.2015’. https://www.tccb.gov.tr/konusmalar/353/36063/7-atlantik-konseyi-enerji-ve-ekonomi-zirvesinde-yaptiklari-konusma (Accessed 30 May 2023); Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye. n.d. ‘Speech at the 2015 TÜBİTAK Science, Special and Incentive Awards Ceremony − 03.12.2015’. https://www.tccb.gov.tr/konusmalar/353/37188/2015-yili-tubitak-bilim-ozel-ve-tesvik-odulleri-toreninde-yaptiklari-konusma (Accessed 1 June 2023).

7. European Council. 2014. ‘Remarks by President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy after his meeting with Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/140694.pdf

8. Based on Freedom House’s 2022 report, Turkey is labelled as ‘not free’ with a score of 32. In addition, based on (V-Dem’s 2022) Participatory Democracy Index, Turkey’s score is 0.16.

9. [Translated by the author from Turkish to English] Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye. n.d. ‘Speech at the 73rd United Nations General Assembly − 25.09.2018’. https://www.tccb.gov.tr/konusmalar/353/98783/73-birlesmis-milletler-genel-kurulunda-yaptiklari-konusma (Accessed 28 August 2022).

10. European Council. 2021. ‘Remarks by President Charles Michel after his meeting in Ankara with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2021/04/06/remarks-by-president-charles-michel-after-his-meeting-in-ankara-with-president-recep-tayyip-erdogan/

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Erman Ermihan

Erman Ermihan is a Ph.D. candidate in International Relations at Kadir Has University, based in Istanbul, Turkey. His research focuses on political psychology, foreign policy analysis, European Union, Turkish foreign policy, and teaching International Relations.