Turkey's encounters with the new Europe: multiple transformations, inherent dilemmas and the challenges ahead

Abstract

From a comparative standpoint, Turkey constitutes an interesting case for studying alternative paths to modernity. The irony of the Turkish experience is that the Turkish elites have unambiguously adopted the West as their reference point and modernization has typically been interpreted as being identical to Westernization. Developing close, organic relations with Europe was a natural corollary of this style of modernization. Westernization, in the Turkish context, meant a commitment to reach not only the standards of economic, scientific and technological development of the West but also to establish a secular and democratic political order. Yet, the process of top-down modernization that Turkey experienced has created not only tensions domestically within a predominantly Muslim society, but also in her encounters with Europe. Turkey’s long-standing aspiration to become part of Europe has been the source of a tense relationship, creating divisions and conflicts not only within Turkey but also within Europe itself. During the successive waves of enlargement of the European Community—more recently the European Union (EU)—there has not been a case comparable to Turkey that has generated such heated debate about the nature of European identity and the very boundaries of modern Europe. Turkey was a rather unique case which appeared to differ from the core of Europe in civilizational terms, but at the same time wished to develop deep relations with Europe. In spite of the rather unusual tensions underlying this relationship which was present on both sides, a dense set of interactions with a primary emphasis on the economic dimension developed over successive decades. The nature of this relationship, however, was not sufficiently strong to produce a far-reaching impact on the Turkish economy and Turkish democracy, that is the kind of impact that countries like Spain, Portugal and Greece experienced during the course of the 1980s and the 1990s. More recently, however, following the key decision by the EU to provide formal endorsement to Turkey’s claims for full membership, the impact of the Europeanization process on Turkey has been quite phenomenal. Although the process cannot be explained simply on the basis of a changing set of external dynamics, nevertheless, there is no doubt that the more credible commitments made by the EU have rendered the adoption of the Copenhagen