Rabah Aissaoui

Turkey and the European Union An Analysis of How the Press in Four Countries Covered Turkey's Bid for Accession in 2004

A B S T R A C T ■ This article examines how the press in four countries — three EU members (France, Britain, Greece) and Turkey — covered the run-up to the discussions surrounding Turkeys bid to become a member of the European Union in October and December 2004. Given contemporary debates about the nature of Europe and European identity, the prospect of Turkey — a large, poor, Muslim country — joining the EU was likely to generate much discussion. The data show important differences in the coverage from one country to the next, with some countries reflecting significant concerns about differences between Europe and Turkey and others much less so. Overall, many of the differences in coverage that were found in the analysis could be attributed to the ways in which the press in different countries reflected domestic political, cultural and historical considerations. Such differences, it is argued, may not be surprising given the complexity of the subject matter and need not necessarily be seen as antithetical to the construction of a European public sphere or a European identity. ■

History, cultural identity and difference: the issue of Turkey's accession to the European Union in the French national press

After four decades of strenuous attempts to join the European Union (EU) and a period of intense negotiations and political manoeuvring, Turkey finally managed to secure an agreement with the EU to open membership negotiations on 4 October 2005. This decision taken in Brussels was hailed by Abdullah Gül, the Turkish Foreign Minister, as a ‘historic moment’ and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that it represented a ‘giant leap’ for Turkey. Turkey was, to some extent, rewarded for the wide-ranging reforms that it has adopted over the 45 years since its decision to be part of the European project but also for the Western-inspired cultural, political and social transformation the country has experienced since the early years of the Kemalist era in the 1920s. In the final months of 2004, the issue of whether or not Turkey should be granted the right to start negotiations triggered heated debates in the French political and media scenes about the validity of allowing ‘in our midst’ a nation that many viewed as the quintessential ‘other’. The arguments that were exchanged divided politicians, journalists and other intellectuals across traditional political lines. Whilst Jacques Chirac remained in favour of Turkish membership, Conservative members of Parliament from Chirac’s majority and led by Philippe Pézemec called for a ‘national mobilization’ against Turkish entry to the EU. Ex-President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, who had recently chaired the Convention on the European Constitution, declared himself against Turkey’s bid as did, on the left, ex-Socialist Prime Minister Laurent Fabius and Member of Parliament Manuel Valls, thereby challenging the Socialist Party’s generally favourable stance on Turkey’s entry.

Algerian nationalists in the French political arena and beyond: the Etoile nord-africaine and the Parti du peuple algérien in interwar France

During the interwar period, North Africans in France had established a tradition of anti-colonial political struggle and nationalism. Their political discourse was structured around a common denominator: their identity as Arabs and Muslims fighting against French colonial oppression. The Algerian anti-colonial movement, born within the structures of the French Communist Party in the mid-1920s was to distance itself slowly from the direct influence of this party. The Etoile nord-africaine developed a discourse that initially encapsulated all North Africans, but soon evolved to focus mainly on Algerian issues: the construction of a ‘modern’ Algerian identity and the struggle for independence. Through an analysis of El Ouma, the newspaper of the nationalist organisation, and of French colonial archives, this article explores some key aspects of the nationalist discourse of the Etoile nord-africaine (ENA) and the Parti du peuple algérien (PPA) on their relationship with the French left. It also assesses some of the ways in which international events such as the invasion of Ethiopia by Mussolinis Italy and the Palestinian question were both evoked to frame their nationalist struggle within the wider anti-colonial agenda of part of the left and establish links with other anti-imperialist and nationalist organisations in France and beyond.

Politics, identity and temporality in colonial Algeria in the early twentieth century

ABSTRACT In the first quarter of the twentieth century, colonial Algeria was marked by profound social, cultural and political tensions that were compounded by a concatenation of events triggered by the First World War. Within a context marked by the determination of settlers and the colonial administration to maintain the colonial status quo, a small group of French-educated Algerian political activists known as the Jeunes Algériens (Young Algerians) emerged onto the political scene and called for reform and for more rights for the colonised. This study examines aspects of political discourse in the colony during that period and considers how notions of temporality were invoked on both sides of the colonial divide and shaped political debate at the time. It discusses some of the ways in which history and memory as well as conceptions of Algeria’s future were conjured up, on the one hand, by French politicians, settlers and writers in ways that sustained France’s hegemonic colonial discourse, and, on the other, by the Jeunes Algériens in order to emphasise the inequity of the colonial order, seek acceptance within the French nation and foreground specific political claims and demands.

Turkey and the European union: An analysis of how the press in four countries covered Turkey's bid for accession in 2004

A B S T R A C T ■ This article examines how the press in four countries — three EU members (France, Britain, Greece) and Turkey — covered the run-up to the discussions surrounding Turkeys bid to become a member of the European Union in October and December 2004. Given contemporary debates about the nature of Europe and European identity, the prospect of Turkey — a large, poor, Muslim country — joining the EU was likely to generate much discussion. The data show important differences in the coverage from one country to the next, with some countries reflecting significant concerns about differences between Europe and Turkey and others much less so. Overall, many of the differences in coverage that were found in the analysis could be attributed to the ways in which the press in different countries reflected domestic political, cultural and historical considerations. Such differences, it is argued, may not be surprising given the complexity of the subject matter and need not necessarily be seen as antithetical to the construction of a European public sphere or a European identity. ■

Turkey and the European Union

A B S T R A C T ■ This article examines how the press in four countries — three EU members (France, Britain, Greece) and Turkey — covered the run-up to the discussions surrounding Turkeys bid to become a member of the European Union in October and December 2004. Given contemporary debates about the nature of Europe and European identity, the prospect of Turkey — a large, poor, Muslim country — joining the EU was likely to generate much discussion. The data show important differences in the coverage from one country to the next, with some countries reflecting significant concerns about differences between Europe and Turkey and others much less so. Overall, many of the differences in coverage that were found in the analysis could be attributed to the ways in which the press in different countries reflected domestic political, cultural and historical considerations. Such differences, it is argued, may not be surprising given the complexity of the subject matter and need not necessarily be seen as antithetical to the construction of a European public sphere or a European identity. ■