The Turkey Analyst

Vol. 4 no. 1, 10 January 2011

ANALYSIS

Turkey and the EU: The Disappearing Vision
Gareth H. Jenkins
On December 31, 2010, Belgium’s six month presidency of the EU closed without any chapters in Turkey’s membership negotiations being opened. It was the first time an EU presidency had been concluded without the opening of any chapters since Turkey’s accession process was launched in October 2005. Although at least one chapter is expected to be opened during the first half of 2011, it is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain the impression that the accession process is still alive, much less that there is any realistic prospect of Turkey joining the EU in the foreseeable future.

Seeking to Redesign Turkey, the AKP Resurrects State Tutelage
Halil M. Karaveli
The ruling Justice and development party (AKP) seems to have recommitted itself to keeping Turkey a mono-culturally Turkish state. Recent appearances are nonetheless deceptive. The AKP is not ideologically beholden to Turkish nationalism in the old, Kemalist mould. Turkey’s ruling party is nevertheless heir to a state tradition which precludes societal participation and democratic deliberation. The Kurds are expected to remain quiescent and await the state to eventually extend its benevolence, while the Turks are being misled by a nationalist discourse that veils the changes that follow from the state’s Kurdish opening.

What the Columnists Say
Several of the leading commentators in the Turkish media are engaged in a searching deliberation about the nature of the AKP and more generally about the question of the future of democratization in Turkey. The recent, violent clampdown by the police on protesting university students and in particular the fact that Prime Minister Erdoğan defended the methods of the police prompted many otherwise pro-government commentators to call attention to the democratic deficiencies of Turkey’s ruling party. Meanwhile, it was asserted that the problem is aggravated by the fact that the AKP is not rivaled by a truly liberal opposition. In general, the impression conveyed by the commentaries is that Turkish politics is in an impasse, with the political parties offering little hope that they are willing or able to contribute to further democratization.

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NEW Silk Road Paper published

Reconciling Statism with Freedom: Turkey's Kurdish Opening
by Halil M. Karaveli, October 2010.



The Turkey Analyst
The Turkey Analyst is a publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Joint Center, designed to bring authoritative analysis and news on the rapidly developing domestic and foreign policy issues in Turkey. It is published weekly, and includes a topical analysis, as well as translations and summaries of selected Turkish news reports. It is edited and compiled under the supervision of Svante E. Cornell, Halil M. Karaveli, and M. K. Kaya.

The Turkey Analyst welcomes article submissions.

The Joint Center
The Joint Center, created in 2005, is the product of the merger of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, and the Silk Road Studies Program, at the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy.

The Turkey Initiative
The Joint Center launched a Turkey Initiative in 2006 in order to improve understand of Turkish domestic and foreign affairs in Europe and the United States.

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