One Stereotype, Many Representations: Turkey in Italian Geopolitics

Abstract

A recent re-assessment of the role that cultural factors play in geopolitics has resulted in a profound reconceptualisation of the field. This new approach affords representations special importance, since they reveal a great deal about those who propose them. National stereotypes, a specific kind of representation, provide valuable insight into popular readings of the world, and shape the collective geopolitical subconscious. But are the representations and views espoused by the elites also affected by stereotypes? And to what extent can national stereotypes and the counter-representations to which they give rise, withstand the representations imposed by the elites? The article takes a close look at past and present representations of Turkey in Italy in an attempt to answer these questions, and to explore the ways in which national stereotypes can enter geopolitical discursive practice.

Notes

1. G. Ó Tuathail and S. Dalby, ‘Introduction: Rethinking Geopolitics: Towards a Critical Geopolitics’, in G. ÓTuathail and S. Dalby (eds.), Rethinking Geopolitics (London: Routledge 1998) p. 5.

2. G. Corna Pellegrini, Geografia dei valori culturali (Rom: Carocci 2004) p. 153.

3. E. Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage Press 1979).

4. W. Lippman, Public Opinion (New York: Harcourt Brace & Co. 1922) p. 7.

5. G. Dijkink, National Identity and Geopolitical Visions. Maps of Pride and Pain (London: Routledge 1996).

6. G. Dijkink, ‘Geopolitical Codes and Popular Representations’, in GeoJournal 46 (December 1998) pp. 293–299.

7. J. Sharp, ‘Refiguring Geopolitics: The Reader's Digest and Popular Geographies of Danger at the End of the Cold War’, in K. Dodds and D. Atkinson (eds.), Geopolitical Traditions: A Century of Geopolitical Thought (London: Routledge 2000) p. 334.

8. A. Montanari, Stereotipi nazionali. Modelli di comportamento e relazioni in Europa (Naples: Liguori 2002).

9. Ibid. p. 147.

10. Ibid. p. 200–212.

11. Ibid. p. 204.

12. Ibid. p. 205.

13. Edward W. Said's writings are numerous. Among his most important publications on this topic, we would mention the following: Orientalism (New York: Vintage Press 1979); Covering Islam (New York: Pantheon Books 1981); Culture and Imperialism (New York: Knopf 1993); Power, Politics and Culture (New York: Pantheon Books 2001).

14. Montanari (note 8) p. 11.

15. K. M. Setton, Western Hostility to Islam and Prophecies of Turkish Doom (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society 1992) p. 17.

16. T. Meyer, Die Identität Europas: der EU eine Seele? (Frankfurt am Mein: Suhrkamp Verlag 2004) p. 11.

17. Ibid.

18. G. Devoto and G. C. Oli, Dizionario della Lingua Italiana (Florence: Le Monnier 2002–2003) p. 2214.

19. G. Castellan, Histoire des Balkans (XVI-XX siecle) (Paris: Fayard 1991); E. G. Fuller and O. I. Lesser, A Sense of Siege: The Geopolitics of Islam and the West (Boulder: Westview Press 1995); G. Schreiber, Auf den Spuren der Türken (Munich: Paul List Verlag 1980).

20. A detailed account of the authors closest to the Roman Curia who wrote of the Turks can be found in M. Soykut, Image of the “Turk”. A History of the “Other” in Early Modern Europe: 1453–1683 (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag 2001).

21. K. Fleet, ‘Italian Perceptions of the Turks in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries’, in Journal of Mediterranean Studies, 52 (1995).

22. Soykut (note 20) p. 40.

23. L. Valensi, ‘The Making of a Political Paradigm: The Ottoman State and Oriental Despotism’, in Anthony Grafton and Ann Blair (eds.), The Transmission of Culture in Early Modern Europe (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 1990) pp. 176–177.

24. C. A. Frazee, Catholics and Sultans. The Church and the Ottoman Empire. 1453–1923 (New York: Cambridge University Press 1983) p. 5.

25. Soykut (note 20) pp. 146–147; P. Preto, Venezia e i Turchi (Florence: Sansoni 1975) pp. 340–351, & 506–524.

26. Giovanni Battista Donado (known as Donà) was bailo in Constantinople and author of a seminal work on Turkish culture: Della Letteratura de’ Turchi [On the Literature of the Turks] (Venice: Andrea Poletti 1688).

27. P. Preto (note 25) pp. 350–351.

28. A. Tenenti, G. Bellingeri, G. Morelli, et al., Venezia e i turchi (Milan: Electa 1985).

29. E. Boria, L’interpretazione in geopolitica. L’adesione della Turchia all’Unione Europea e le sue rappresentazioni (Rome: Nuova Cultura 2004) pp. 79–86.

30. “Il Cavaliere diventa ambasciatore e apre le braccia dell’Ue a 4 paesi”, Il Giornale (18 December 2004) p. 6.

31. “Berlusconi all’attacco della stampa straniera”, Il Corriere della Sera (25 October 2004) p. 6.

32. “Cardinal Ratzinger: Identifier la Turquie à l’Europe serait une erreur”, Le Figaro, (13 August 2004) pp. 32–34.

33. J. Ratzinger, Europa. I suoi fondamenti oggi e domani (Cinisello Balsamo: San Paolo 2004); J. Ratzinger, Svolta per l’Europa? (Cinisello Balsamo: San Paolo 1992).

34. “Turchia. Una Cina più vicina” [“Turkey. A Closer China”], Panorama (February 2005) pp. 96–98.

35. Catalogues on Turkey for the year 2005, by the following tour operators: King Holidays, Entour, Inviaggi and Courtesy Travel.

36. J. L. Gaddis, Strategies of Containment. A Critical Appraisal of Post-war American National Security Policy (New York: Oxford University Press 1982).

37. D. Newman, ‘Citizenship, Identity and Location. The Changing Discourse of Israeli Geopolitics’, in K. Dodds and D. Atkinson (eds.), Geopolitical Traditions: A Century of Geopolitical Thought (London: Routledge 2000) p. 302.

38. P. Routledge, ‘Anti-Geopolitics’, in J. Agnew, K. Mitchell, and G. Toal (eds.), A Companion to Political Geography (London and New York: Blackwell 2003) pp. 234–248.

39. See the results of the following surveys: Eurobarometer 63, p. 162 (fieldwork May–June 2005, publication: September 2005); Transatlantic Trends, p. 11 (fieldwork May–June 2005, publication: September 2005); Cercom (fieldwork February 2005, publication: February 2005).

40. Routledge (note 38) p. 236.

41. Sharp (note 7) p. 348.

42. J. Sharp, Condensing the Cold World. Reader's Digest and American Identity (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press 2000).