HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY EUROSCEPTICISM IN TURKEY: A SURVEY STUDY ON IR STUDENTS

Authors : Feride Aslı Ergül Jorgensen, Betül Aydoğan Ünal

Pages : 61-76

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Publication Date : 2017-01-12

Article Type : Other Papers

Abstract :In recent years, there has been a growing academic interest in understanding the extent and determinants of Euroscepticism among the non-Europeans. As a concept about mistrust in the EU, the level of Euroscepticism can give valuable data about the socio-political structure of a society and its very perception of Europe. Moreover, the dynamics of the relationship between Europe and the given country can be better understood. To this end, this paper aims to find the roots of Euroscepticism and trace the patterns of it among the International Relations (IR) students in Turkey via online survey.Through analysing the tendencies of answers, we believe that both the reasons of the students’ support for the EU and their basic concerns can be understood with a broad range of reasons. In fact, several focal points of scepticism can be observed around political, cultural and national concerns as our survey results are examined closely. We hope that this survey analysis is not only a contribution to better comprehend relations between Turkey and the EU, but also helping us, the IR scholars, to learn more about the characteristics of our students and their perception of Europe.
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