%0 Journal Article
%T Turkey and EU/rope: Discourses of Inspiration/Anxiety in Turkey¡¯s Foreign Policy
%A Pinar Bilgin
%A Ali Bilgic
%J Review of European Studies
%D 2012
%I 
%R 10.5539/res.v4n3p111
%X The literature on Turkey-European Economic Community/Union (EEC/EU) relations scrutinises how various EEC/EU actors vacillate on Turkey¡¯s accession to European integration contingent upon their image/s of Turkey. Turkey¡¯s own wavering vis-¨¤-vis EEC/EU, however, is almost always explained with reference to its domestic dynamics (political and economic ups and downs) but not Turkey¡¯s policy-makers¡¯ image/s of the European Community/Union. What often goes unacknowledged is that throughout the history of Turkey-EEC/EU relations, Turkey¡¯s policy-makers¡¯ discourses have oscillated between representing EU/rope as a source of inspiration and a source of anxiety. Contra those readings of Turkey¡¯s relations with EU/rope as revolving around the dichotomy of ¡®Turkey being European/not¡¯, our analysis of Turkey¡¯s policy-makers¡¯ discourses on EEC/EU at key moments of the relationship during 1959-2004 shows that Turkey¡¯s policy-makers¡¯ representations of EU/rope are structured around three binaries that give away a persistent ambivalence vis-¨¤-vis EU/rope as a source of and a solution to Turkey¡¯s insecurities. Such ambivalence, in turn, is not uncharacteristic of post-colonial encounters.
%U http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/res/article/view/18438