Turkish Perceptions of the Euro-Zone Crisis: On Turkey’s Changing Perceptions on Europe and the EU

    • IMG_1954
    • Presentation speakers
      • Beyza Ç. Tekin, Galatasaray University, Department of International Relations, Istanbul, Turkey

    Abstract:

    This paper studies Turkish perceptions of the present economic turmoil in the euro-zone, with the aim of exploring changing images and representations of Europe and the EU in Turkey. For this aim, this paper analyzes Turkish political actors’ perceptions of the ‘Greek debt crisis and the bailout program’, as well as the possibility of a full-blown economic crisis in euro-zone in the near future. A neo-liberal understanding of ‘global competitiveness’ and ‘efficiency’ is found to dominate Turkish political actors’ discourse on the crisis in the euro-zone. This study argues that globalization challenges, Turkey’s changing self-perceptions and the shift in Turkish foreign policy, growing frustration and disappointment with the stalled accession negotiations with the EU all are of critical importance in the transformation of Turkish perceptions of the EU. In the present context of economic turbulence in the euro-zone, this study tries to assess the deteriorating image of the EU as an anchor in one of its peripheral countries. How the EU is being perceived by an outsider at this time of economic turbulence is crucial in assessing the EU as a cosmopolitan, normative power. Being a ‘historical Other’ in proximity of the EU, with a particular constitutive role in the formation of a collective European identity, Turkey’s changing perceptions of the EU provide us a valuable insight into the evolving image of the EU from the outside and dialogical interactions between the Self and the Other. Consequently, this paper investigates the Turkish perceptions of the EU crisis in an attempt to evaluate the EU’s claim to be a post-national normative power.

 

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