DISCOURSES ON TÜRKİYE IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT BETWEEN 2007 AND 2015 WITHIN THE IMAGE OF THE EUROPEAN SECURITY COMMUNITY

Authors : Sezgi Erdoğan

Pages : 1-24

Doi:10.29228/mjes.452

View : 52 | Download : 62

Publication Date : 2024-06-30

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Maintaining a constructive relationship and promoting dialogue and cooperation with Türkiye is crucial for European security. However, Türkiye has long been associated with a de-Europeanization trend that poses serious risks and difficulties for European security, affecting a number of areas including energy security, regional stability, migratory dynamics, and security cooperation. In this context, this article examines how Türkiye was perceived between 2007 and 2015 in the European Parliament (EP), during which time it exhibited some signs of de-Europeanization under the discursive construction of Europe as a security community. It also analyzes the extent to which MEPs’ articulations of Turkish and European identities in this period diverged from or converged with those in the period 1997-2007, which was generally a period of Turkish Europeanization within this conceptualization of Europe. For this purpose, the discourse-historical approach (DHA) is used to critically assess EP discourses on Türkiye from a social constructivist viewpoint, which holds that identities are socially constructed through the discourses of agents. Under the discursive construction of the European security community, this study reveals two opposing and prevalent representations of Türkiye as subtopics: Türkiye as a strategic partner and a security threat in the region. This article contends that, despite Türkiye’s de-Europeanization period, the positive images of Türkiye within the European security community outweigh the negative ones due to the country’s critical potential implications for European security, its crucial roles integrated with its NATO membership and its geostrategic importance.
Keywords : Avrupa Parlamentosu, Avrupalılaşma sürecinden uzaklaşma, Avrupa güvenlik topluluğu, söylem tarihsel yaklaşım, kimlik