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ABSTRACT
This paper discusses how Turkey’s otherness to European identity, as represented by the European Union (EU), was turned into an asset during the beginning of the AKP rule. To the extent that the AKP represented the Islamic cultural other against both the secular establishment of Turkey and the EU, its promise to fulfill the Copenhagen political criteria and adopt EU norms and standards provided a possibility of ‘a model’ for the EU. This was the promise of a self-transforming cultural other becoming a part of the EU normative order and representing this system in its region. In the period between 2002 and 2005, there was a compromise on Turkey’s projected identity between the EU and the AKP. Yet this early promise and the ensuing compromise could not be sustained and realized in the following phases of the AKP rule. First stagnation between 2005 and 2010 and then a break wasted this promising new beginning.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Kürşad Ertuğrul is associate professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Middle East Technical University in Ankara. His research areas are Social and Political Theory, European Studies, Turkish Politics and Turkish Modernization.
Öznur Akcalı Yılmaz is a PhD candidate and research assistant in the Department of International Relations at Middle East Technical University. After she graduated with a double major in Turkish Language and Literature and International Relations at TOBB Economics and Technology University, she received her master’s degree in Political Science and Public Administration from METU. Her main academic interests are EU foreign policy, EU-Turkey relations, Turkish foreign policy and Turkish literature.
Notes
1 Neumann, Uses of the Other; Wolff, Inventing Eastern Europe; and Koselleck, Futures Past.
2 Robins, Interrupting Identities: Turkey/Europe, 64.
3 Philips, “Europe as a Cultural,” 280–8.
4 European Commission, Recommendation.
5 Laffan, The European Union, 75–96.
6 European Commission, Recommendation.
7 As Gadamer emphasized ‘only objectivity’ in interpretation/understanding ‘is the confirmation of a fore-meaning in its being worked out.’ Gadamer, Truth and Method, 270.
8 Fairclough, Analysing Discourse, 11.
9 Wernet, “Hermeneutics and Objective Hermeneutics,” 235.
10 Leuffen, Rittberger, and Schimmelfenning, Differentiated Integration.
11 Gillingham, European Integration: 1950-2003.
12 Shore, Building Europe, 57.
13 Convention Implementing the Schengen Agreement.
14 Treaty of Amsterdam, Article B.
15 Huysmans, “The European Union,” 751–7.
16 Bigo, Liaison Officers in Europe, 67–94.
17 Bigo, “Security and Immigration,” 80.
18 Bruter, Civic and Cultural Components, 189–90.
19 Smith, “The European Union,” 5–28.
20 Eriksen, Reflexive Integration in Europe, 9–29.
21 Risse, A Community of Europeans, 6.
22 Article 31 of the Luxembourg Summit Presidency Conclusions.
23 Milliyet, March 5, 1997.
24 Milliyet, March 12, 1997.
25 European Commission, Recommendation.
26 Ibid.
27 Ibid.
28 Haller, “The Image of Turkey,” 330.
29 Akdoğan, AK Parti ve Muhafazakar Demokrasi.
30 Ibid., 20.
31 European Commission, Recommendation.
32 Öniş and Yılmaz, “Between Europeanization,” 12.
33 Bilgin, “Foreign Policy Orientation … ”, 412–13.
34 Erbakan, “Adil Ekonomik Düzen,” 17.
35 This periodization, the table and the corresponding concepts are derived from Akcalı, “Using ‘The Other’.”
36 Republic of Turkey Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Political Reforms in Turkey, 5.
37 Ibid., 6.
38 Ibid.
39 Ibid.
40 Ibid., 18.
41 European Commission, Recommendation.
42 European Commission, 2004 Regular Report, 15.
43 AK Parti, 2002 Genel Seçimleri Seçim Beyannamesi, 132.
44 European Commission, 2003 Regular Report, 123.
45 Ibid., 123.
46 AK Parti, 2002 Genel Seçimleri Seçim Beyannamesi, 132.
47 Ibid., 87.
48 Ibid., 133–5.
49 Erdoğan, AK Parti TBMM Grup, 352.
50 Gül, Yeni Yüzyılda Türk Dış, 235.
51 Erdoğan, AK Parti TBMM Grup, 425.
52 Erdoğan, Uluslararası Konferans ve Katılım, 20.
53 Ibid., 447.
54 Gül, Yeni Yüzyılda Türk Dış, 683.
55 Davutoğlu, Nueva Economia Forum.
56 Erdoğan, AK Parti TBMM Grup, 33.
57 The claim behind these trials was that ‘military-affiliated people and also journalists, academics and businessmen’ had formed an illicit organization, ‘Ergenekon’ which takes its name from a myth about the origin of the Turks, with the aim ‘to plan coups to overthrow the government’ in the 2000s. Several operations were held by the police for this case. According to the prosecution, Balyoz operation (meaning sledgehammer) was also a plan which aimed to provoke ‘high tension to eventually justify a military takeover.’ For detailed information, see Aknur, “Civil-Military Relations,” 140.
58 T24, September 17, 2008.
59 European Commission, Turkey 2008 Progress Report, 17.
60 European Commission, Turkey 2009 Progress Report, 6.
61 European Commission, Turkey 2008 Progress Report, 6.
62 For instance, see Saatçioğlu, Unpacking the Compliance; Alaranta, Turkey under; Patton, “AKP Reform Fatigue”; and David, “Strategic Democratisation?”
63 Saatçioğlu, “AKP’s ‘Europeanization’”, 88.
64 Avcı, “The Justice,” 410.
65 It is argued that Eurocrisis limited time and attention to EU’s foreign policy. See Whitman and Juncos, “The Arab Spring,” 149.
66 Öniş, “Turkey,” 57.
67 Akcalı, “Using ‘the Other’,” 30.
68 Kalaycıoğlu, “Kulturkampf in Turkey,” 6.
69 Erdoğan, “2011 Başbakan Erdoğan’ın.”
70 Erdoğan, “Başbakan Erdoğan’ın 18. İstişare.”
71 Erdoğan, “Başbakan Erdoğan’ın İstişare.”
72 Davutoğlu, “Dışişleri Bakanı Sayın.”
73 Erdoğan, “Başbakan Erdoğan’ın 3 Ocak.”
74 Erdoğan, “Başbakan Erdoğan’ın Genişletilmiş.”
75 Erdoğan, “Başbakan Erdoğan’ın 20 Kasım.”
76 Burch, “Turkey's Leader Hits.”
77 Davutoğlu, “Dışişleri Bakanı Sayın.”
78 European Commission, Turkey 2013 Progress Report, 11.
79 European Parliament, “Motion for a Resolution.”
80 Erdoğan, “Başbakan Erdoğan’ın 12 Haziran.”
81 Erdoğan, “Başbakan Erdoğan’ın 25 Haziran.”
82 European Commission, Turkey 2013 Progress Report, 2.
83 Ibid., 11.
84 Ibid., 52.
85 European Commission, Turkey 2016 Report, 7.
86 Ibid., 6.
87 Ibid.
88 Ibid., 24.
89 Ibid., 12.
90 Ibid.
91 Said, Orientalism.
92 Wolff, Inventing Eastern Europe.
93 Todorova, Imagining the Balkans.
94 Wolff, Inventing Eastern Europe.