Aylin Güney

Turkey’s EU Candidacy and Civil-Military Relations: Challenges and Prospects

This article examines the Turkish case within the framework of theories that explain the impact of transnational factors upon civil-military relations in national contexts. The authors examine the impact of Turkey’s European Union (EU) membership candidacy on civil-military relations in Turkey. More specifically, they elaborate on the challenges and prospects for more democratic civil-military relations in Turkey as triggered by the EU candidacy. In this regard, the article examines the notion of guardianship that characterizes the military’s traditional role in Turkish politics and its institutional reflections.

The Military and Democracy in the Third Turkish Republic

In the mid-1990s, civil-military relations in Turkey came close to the liberal-democratic model. The military was essentially interested in contributing to public policy in matters it deemed important-matters that pertained to the internal and external defense of the country. Officers thought that they should make such a contribution not because they were the ultimate guardians of some substantive norms but because they had the necessary expertise. However, they became impatient if civilian governments bypassed them in the making of policy decisions deemed critical. Concerning such matters, sometimes they suggested that the people should act as arbiters in the conflict between them and civilian governments. However, officers gave the impression that if indeed the peoples opinion was asked and the people supported them rather than the civilian government they would not force the civilian government to act in the way they thought best.

Anti-Americanism in Turkey: Past and Present

After the Second World War, strategic collaboration between Turkey and the United States (USA) was not established on an already-existing relationship, since neither the USA nor Turkey had important strategic interests in one another during the interwar years (1919–39). Nevertheless, the interwar period had laid the groundwork and provided a logical basis for such cooperation. Prior to the First World War, Americans had already built up interests, mainly of a philanthropic and commercial nature, in the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean. At that time, American interests in Turkey included the Turkish missions of the Congressional American Board, trade and business, technical assistance furnished by individual Americans and private organizations, non-missionary philanthropy and other cultural enterprises, and archaeological expeditions sponsored by American universities. In the aftermath of the First World War, another factor became increasingly important for American interests in the Middle Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean region in addition to philanthropic interests. It was the Middle East’s vast oil reserves, capable of supplying 75–80 per cent of all Western oil demand. Thus, Turkey started to be evaluated within the framework of the Middle East’s increasing strategic importance. For example, an early draft of what became the Truman Doctrine stressed Turkey’s proximity to the ‘great natural resources’ of the Persian Gulf. Turkey’s geo-strategic location was of considerable importance to US interests since it could serve as a major base for US power projection into the Middle East in order to be able to secure the flow of oil. American interest in oil and its ‘open door’ policy for any business interest that wanted to operate in the Middle East was controversial, and in some respects constituted the first divergence of interests between the two countries. De Novo gives an example of this clash of interests: ‘even in the event of the rumoured political deal whereby Great Britain would let Turkey have Mosul, the USA would oppose any monopolistic concession in the area’. The beginning of the Cold War period (1947) marked a different phase in Turkish– American relations. The Truman Doctrine highlighted the convergent strategic interests between Turkey and the USA, and Turkey’s geo-strategic importance for the West became an asset for Turkey. Turkey became one of the beneficiaries of the Marshall Plan, which directed an extensive amount of economic aid to the country. Turkey’s main objective was to attract US attention to the Eastern Mediterranean Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 44, No. 3, 471 – 487, May 2008

An Anatomy of the Transformation of the US–Turkish Alliance: From “Cold War” to “War on Iraq”

Abstract This essay examines the evolution of Turkish–US relations in three different time periods: the Cold War, the post‐Cold War and the post‐9/11 period. While the relationship was referred to as an “alliance” during the Cold War, established with a common interest to contain the Soviet communist threat, the post‐Cold War period posed important challenges and transformed the relations first into an “enhanced partnership” and then into a “strategic partnership.” The post‐9/11 period has put under scrutiny the viability of the strategic partnership as relations between the two countries have been going through a crisis with the war on Iraq waged by the United States from March 2003. The essay aims at analyzing the factors and dynamics behind this transformation in the alliance. It concludes that the raison d’être and the nature of the Turkish–US alliance have undergone considerable change as Turkey has in time started to pursue a more independent and multidimensional policy. Relations, in this period, seem to be entering yet another phase and converting from a “strategic partnership” to “partnership for democracy” in the greater Middle East.

The USA’s Role in Mediating the Cyprus Conflict: A Story of Success or Failure?

This article is an attempt to assess the role played by the United States in the search for a solution to the Cyprus conflict both during and after the Cold War. The USA’s role in mediating the Cyprus conflict during crisis episodes is crucial for understanding the evolution of this 48-year-old stalemate. It was the superpower politics and containment strategy during the Cold War years that determined the course of action in US crisis mediation and determined its success or failure. In the post-Cold War period, on the other hand, the success or failure of the USA’s crisis mediation in Cyprus has been determined by the fact that it remained the sole hegemonic power in world politics. This article aims to sort out the implications of success and failure in the USA’s role in mediating the crises of 1963, 1967, 1974 and 1998, to account for the variation in the outcomes and speculate on the possible US role to be played regarding a probable major crisis in 2004 when Cyprus joins the EU as a divided island.

The European Union's Democracy Promotion Policies in Algeria: Success or Failure?

Abstract This article aims at analysing the problem of democratisation in Algeria, with a specific focus on the impact on it of its relations with the European Union within the context of the democracy promotion policies of the EU. Although the EU has expressed ambitious goals regarding democracy promotion in the Mediterranean in general, member state policy preferences within the EU, the weakness of the intervention tools such as the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), the Barcelona Process and the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), and the EUs short-term rather than long-term concern for political stability have acted as obstacles to the EU playing a role in Algeria.

The ‘Greater Middle East’ as a ‘Modern’ Geopolitical Imagination in American Foreign Policy

This article aims at analysing how the September 11 terrorist attacks have caused the formation of a new geopolitical vision of an area called the ‘Greater Middle East’ and how this formation has led to changes in US foreign policy towards this region. To do that, the article first presents a theoretical background against which the modern geopolitical imagination of the USA is formulated. It considers the links between national traumas/myths, geopolitical codes and visions, and foreign policy actions. The article then applies this analysis to the case of the Greater Middle East with respect to how this imagined geography shapes the foreign and security policy of the USA. It concludes that even though this imagined region has been presented in texts as justifying US-led policies with liberal underpinnings, it has in reality laid the ground for and been used for justifying US extra-territorial intervention in the region.

Party Dissolutions and Democratic Consolidation: The Turkish Case

Political party competition constitutes an important component of democratic consolidation. In this respect, party dissolutions are generally regarded as impeding consolidation of democracies. This study addresses the relationship between party dissolutions and democratic consolidation, and offers an analysis of recent dissolutions of religiously and ethnically oriented political parties in Turkey. Drawing on Geoffrey Pridhams distinction between ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ democratic consolidation, the study concludes that the dissolutions of religiously oriented parties have contributed to the former while the dissolutions of ethnically oriented political parties have not. Meanwhile, the possible dissolution of the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP), representing 46.6 per cent of the population, would constitute a challenge to ‘positive’ democratic consolidation.

The meta-geography of the Middle East and North Africa in Turkey’s new geopolitical imagination:

This article critically analyses Turkish security discourses connected to the meta-geography of the Broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA) before and after the developments of the Arab Spring. A critical geopolitics approach and critical security theories in international relations provide the theoretical framework, as security discourses are considered to be a product of geopolitical imaginations and codes that, in turn, shape the making of foreign and security policies. First, the article examines the invention of BMENA as a meta-geography within Turkey’s new geopolitical imagination, as well as the new geopolitical codes underlying the new security discourses. Then, the article assesses the impact of the Arab Spring, which led to major changes in Turkey’s newly established geopolitical codes, formulated in the pre-Arab Spring period, and analyses the ruptures and continuities in Turkey’s security discourses in the light of those developments. Finally, the article concludes that the Arab Spring, especially the Syrian crisis, shifted the focus of Turkey’s foreign policy in BMENA from cooperation to conflict. This has led to a resecuritization of Turkey’s geopolitical codes, discourses and security practices in the region, revealing the limitation of Turkey’s current geopolitical imagination.

Europeanization and the dilemma of decentralization: centre–local relations in Turkey

Turkey’s long quest to join the European Union (EU) entered a new phase following the decision taken on 3 October 2005 to start accession negotiations. During the preceding two decades, Turkey had been undergoing a major transformation in order to be able to meet the criteria imposed by the EU. This transformation has continued during the accession negotiations because there are many issues that need to be addressed to make the Turkish state system compatible with the European acquis communautaire. Sub-national structures in European politics have become an important part of the acquis as actors in implementing the regional policies of the EU. These policies aim to reduce intra-regional disparities within the Union through reallocation of resources benefiting the citizens. This has led to local government models, the principle of subsidiarity and minority issues being at the centre of multi-level governance and regional policy debates within the EU, and they are being discussed within the context of centre–local relations in Europe. One important issue that will pose a challenge to the Turkish authorities during the accession negotiations are the chapters related to decentralization and possible devolution of power from the centre. Although the Turkish state has tried to develop proposals with respect to decentralization in the context of Europeanization, it has had to approach the issue with the utmost care since decentralization is seen as an infringement upon the centralized and unitary character of the Turkish state by certain segments of the bureaucratic and political elite. This paper examines the understandings of decentralization in the European and Turkish contexts and will address the possible challenges and opportunities that await Turkey as it tries to further integrate with Europe. To do this, the paper