Meltem Müftüler-Baç

Turkish women's predicament

Synopsis — To the foreign observer, Turkish women constitute an anomaly amongst Muslim societies. Since the creation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, Turkey has engaged in a project of modernization and secularization. As part and parcel of this process of modernization, Turkish women have been granted social, political, and legal rights. Despite Kemalist reforms of the 1920s, the basics of male domination stayed intact. It is this paradoxical character of Kemalist reforms that this article emphasises. The legal equality granted to Turkish women did not succeed in their emancipation. The image of Turkey as the only modern, secular, democratic country in the Islamic Middle East has been an effective distortion, concealing many truths about Turkey. The author proposes that the Mediterranean culture, the Islamist traditions, and the Kemalist ideology act together in perpetuating the oppression of women in Turkey and keep patriarchy intact.

The Era of Dominant-Party Politics

Abstract: The paper analyzes the main factors leading to the Justice and Development Party’s 2011 electoral victory and proposes that the party’s ability to engage with the Turkish public and its effective governance are the main reasons behind its electoral successes. The AKP’s position could be characterized by “electoral hegemony,” yet it seems that the AKP’s power—which stems from its transformative role in Turkey’s modernization and foreign policy—has not yet paved the way to the consolidation of democracy. The AKP’s ability to put together a societal consensus is thus critical in a Turkish politics characterized by a dominant party and a weak opposition.

Through the looking glass: Turkey in Europe

This article discusses Turkeys role in Europe as a question of identity. As Europe reinvents itself along ethnic, cultural, and to a certain extent, racial lines, European perceptions of the “Turk” constitute serious obstacles to Turkeys integration into Europe. Turkeys hopes for full membership in the EU are far from being materialized because of questions regarding Turkeys Europeanness.

Is There a Europeanization of Turkish Foreign Policy? An Addendum to the Literature on EU Candidates

Abstract The beginning of Turkey’s accession negotiations with the European Union on October 3, 2005 constituted an important turning point for Turkey’s relations with the EU and for Turkish socio‐political transformation. This paper poses the following questions: (i) Is there a Europeanization of Turkish foreign policy as a result of Turkey’s accession negotiations with the EU? (ii) If so, then what are the main areas and limits in which Europeanization of Turkish foreign policy has occurred? This paper answers these questions by providing a background of Europeanization; first by differentiating between the member states and the candidate countries; second by analyzing the Europeanization of Turkish foreign policy through an investigation of the changes in Turkish foreign policy since 1999 with regards to the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), NATO‐EU cooperation and Turkey’s Middle Eastern neighbors.

Turkish Parliamentarians' Perspectives on Turkey's Relations with the European Union

Turkey is currently one of the 13 candidates for European Union (EU) membership. Among these candidates, it has a long association with the EU (since 1963) and the oldest standing application for membership (since 1987). Despite this history, when the EU embarked on its enlargement process in the 1990s it did not include Turkey in its list of prospective candidates. During the Luxembourg summit of December 1997, the European Council decided to clear the path for the Union’s enlargement towards the Central and Eastern European countries and Cyprus, basing its decision upon the European Commission’s proposal in its Agenda 2000 of July 1997. 1 However, it was only quite recently, during the Helsinki summit of the European Council of December 1999, that the EU included Turkey in this process of enlargement by granting it candidacy. Officially, the major obstacle to Turkey’s accession is the need to meet the Copenhagen criteria adopted in 1993, 2 but there are other important obstacles that are not part of the Copenhagen criteria which still play a significant role in the accession process, such as Turkey’s relations with Greece—a member of the EC/EU since 1981. Particularly important within the general framework of Turkey’s relations with Greece is the Cyprus problem. The EU’s Accession Partnership Document (APD) of November 2001 has included the resolution of the Cyprus issue among the medium term objectives that Turkey must meet. Thus, Turkey’s adherence to the Copenhagen criteria will officially determine when and under what conditions the EU will begin accession negotiations with Turkey, but the resolution of the Cyprus conflict is likely to be an equally important factor in determining the opening date for Turkey’s accession negotiations. It is, therefore, important to assess the extent to which the Turkish public and its representatives are aware of the critical importance of these factors. Throughout this often turbulent history of relations between the EU and Turkey very little was known about how Turkish citizens view these relations. This analysis begins by briefly reviewing Turkish-EU relations 11

Turkish Foreign Policy, its Domestic Determinants and the Role of the European Union

This paper investigates whether Turkish foreign policy has changed in recent years, specifically in line with the EU accession process, and tries to uncover the main dynamics behind these changes. The main proposition in the paper is that domestic changes in Turkey have led to a reshuffling of foreign policy objectives with a renewed emphasis on improving relations with the countrys neighbours. The paper investigates whether such a policy change is complementary to the Turkish goal of inclusion in the EU, and further proposes that the changes in Turkish foreign policy since 2002 involve an increased activism partly in line with the EU accession process and as a result of the changes in domestic politics.

The Cyprus debacle: what the future holds

This paper analyzes the Cyprus conflict from a realist perspective based on the assumption that it has implications for regional and global security. At the end of the millennium, the UN negotiations for Cyprus have been resumed, the USA has become more actively involved and the European Union has decided to open accession negotiations with Greek Cypriots. The paper proposes first that the futures of Cyprus are going to be determined by the strategic interests of the actors involved and, second, that unification of the island is becoming a more distant possibility.

The European Union’s Accession Negotiations with Turkey from a Foreign Policy Perspective

Abstract The opening of accession negotiations between Turkey and the EU is a historic turning point for the European Union’s foreign policy. This paper proposes that the EU needs to accept Turkey as a member — subject to Turkey’s ability to meet all the accession criteria — for the realization of its foreign policy objectives. The opening of accession negotiations with Turkey is a foreign policy decision for the EU with the aim of bringing about a transformation in Turkey as well as guaranteeing stability in the EU’s borders in the region where Turkey is located. The paper argues that Turkey’s accession is critical for the credibility of the EU’s foreign policy and its enlargement process. In addition, Turkey’s accession would significantly add to the EU’s hard and soft power capabilities, enhancing its role as an international actor.

Turkey in the EU's Enlargement Process: Obstacles and Challenges

The European Union (EU) has embarked on an ambitious programme of enlargement. In this process, Turkey, as one of the candidates, has a particularly difficult position. This article argues that Turkeys relationship with the Union should not be treated as bilateral, but rather should be placed in the larger framework of EU enlargement. In this context, the main proposition is that Turkeys EU candidacy and its negotiations for accession are affected by four factors: the Copenhagen criteria, the EUs institutional set-up, member state preferences (and related to that, Turkeys population) and public opinion within the EU. The article analyses the interplay between these factors and discusses Turkeys future with the European Union in a multilateral perspective.

Turkey's predicament in the post-cold war era

Abstract The ultimate objective of the modern Turkish republic was to be recognized as a European state. The Cold War structures enabled the realization of that goal. Turkeys Europeanness was defined according to its geostrategic position; it became a reliable ally for the West as a buffer state against the former Soviet Union. The disappearance of the Cold War structures have brought the importance and suitability of Turkey for Europe into debate. In order to secure its position in the European order, Turkey had to redefine its policy formulations, as determined by Turkeys Eastern connections (whilst attending to the essentially non-Western elements in Turkey such as Kurdish nationalism and Islam). This article analyses how the new Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East, which is motivated to secure its place in Europe, brings out the non-Western elements in Turkey. The aim is to determine the extent to which such changes will shape Turkeys futures.