Helsinki, Copenhagen and beyond: challenges to the new Europe and the Turkish state

Abstract

A quick glance at recent literature on Turkish democracy and its consolidation reveals that the dominant tendency has been to emphasize the significance of internal or domestic factors, which include both political actors and state institutions (Keyman, 2000; Özbudun, 1999). Thus, the literature refers to the clientelistic and populist centre-right or centre-left political parties and their increasing detachment from Turkish society, as well as to institutional problems stemming from the increasingly ineffective and undemocratic characteristic of the strong-state tradition in Turkey. Although this literature provides us with a set of important insights into Turkish politics and its democratic deficit, it remains partial and limited because it overlooks factors in the international context – that is, international organizations and actors – that also exert powerful pressures on Turkey. For example, recent international developments such as enlargement of the European Union (EU) and the war on Iraq have affected Turkish politics directly and demonstrated that it is no longer possible to separate the national from the international, and vice versa.