Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Turkey on the European doorstep: British and German debates about Turkey in the European Communities

  • Article
  • Published:
Journal of International Relations and Development Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper seeks to provide a historically informed analysis of Europe, understood as an ‘essentially contested concept’, whereby Turkey is interpreted as a critical point of reference that evokes different discursive constructions of Europe, either including or excluding Turkey. At first, the theoretical-methodological section of this paper will introduce a discourse analytical research programme which utilizes the radically constructivist notion of communication as formulated by Niklas Luhmann in order to analyze the processes of inclusion and exclusion built into various constructions of Europe. Then, the empirical section of this paper analyzes more than 40 years of British and German news coverage (1960–2004). One of the main empirical findings is that Turkey is neither seen as a stable European ‘Other’ nor as a European ‘Self’. Instead, Turkey is predominantly interpreted as ‘the thing on the (European) doorstep’, thereby stimulating various differing constructions of Europe.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Research for his article was conducted within the German Research Council-funded Collaborative Research Centre 584 ‘The Political as Communicative Space in History’; a fuller elaboration of the empirical results, particularly also pertaining to the late 1980s can be found in Walter (2008).

  2. The following paragraphs further develop some parts of an argument which was first sketched out in Albert (2005).

  3. This dynamic has been demonstrated in Russian–European relations by Neumann (1998).

  4. The agreement entered into force on 1 December, 1964.

  5. We are thus not trying to adopt Luhmanns modern systems theory, as a full-fledged theory of society, but just make use of his concepts of communication and distinction/difference. See Krämer (2001).

  6. Maybe, for example, as a coordinated set of movements of the body (e.g. to tap one's forehead) or as words, which are compounded of formerly unfixed letters and fade away after their verbal use.

  7. The selected and uttered information may then be adopted or rejected by alter.

  8. See, for example, Fairclough (1995), Luhmann (1996), Merten (1977).

  9. Which is not to suggest that there is no real world ‘out there’. See Goodman (1978): Chapters I and VI, Lenk (1993: 25), Laclau and Mouffe (2001: 108).

  10. Which is not to say that authors have no intentions; however, an observer cannot observe them directly. See Nassehi (1997), but see also Ricœur (1991).

  11. There are of course other possible steps towards an operationalization of discourse theoretical ideas for empirical research. See, for example, Larsen (1997), Diez (1999), Torfing (1999), Jørgensen and Phillips (2002), Howarth and Torfing (2005).

  12. The similarity of approaches is underscored by Luhmann's many references to Derrida in his later writings.

  13. Like for example the French (with a huge Muslim minority), the Austrian (with the historical experience of the Ottoman sieges of Vienna in 1529 and 1683), or of the former Yugoslavian countries (with a good deal of commonly shared Muslim and Ottoman history). For an overview, see Giannakopoulos and Maras (2005); also Baasner (2008).

  14. The selection of newspapers sought to cover a broad spectrum of the print media landscape in both countries. Exemplary samples of more newspapers in both cases did not lead to significant deviations from the results gained from the present analysis. We proceeded on the basis of a full analysis of all newspaper contents (all genres and text sorts). In total, 844 articles matching our search items (like Europe, EEC, EC, EU, and Turkey) were analyzed (1960–1963: 68 German articles, of which 53 in FAZ, 15 in Der Spiegel, and 15 in Bild, and 63 British articles, of which 29 in The Times and 14 in The Economist; December 1999–2004: 538 German articles, of which 438 in FAZ, 20 in Der Spiegel, and 80 in Bild, and 178 British articles, of which 105 in The Times, 53 in The Economist: 53, and 17 in The Daily Mirror.

  15. It is supposed that discourses are concentrated around specific historical-discursive events and are directed by discursive scripts. See Schwab-Trapp (2002: 63).

  16. The period between 1963 and 1987, for example, is remarkably less ‘thick’. Of course, the selected years are nevertheless contingent, which means that they could have also been chosen differently. However, they seem to include decisive historical events and relevant newspaper articles to answer the proposed questions.

  17. All translations from German newspaper articles are our own.

  18. We may thus talk of a ‘chain of equivalence’. For this, see Laclau and Mouffe (2001: 127–34).

  19. This implication is further supported by repeated references to the growing Turkish population. This also leads to first interpretations of Turkish foreign workers (‘Gastarbeiter’) as being a threat to German society (‘The Turks are coming’, FAZ, 28 March, 1962)

  20. Which are mainly suggested to be economic or monetary. But the economic discourse is a minority position in 1962. This untrustworthiness somehow refers to the much older picture of the ‘sly Oriental’. See Said (1979)

  21. Which means that terms and concepts originally formulated in a psychoanalytical context to analyze individual persons are — metaphorically — projected upon an entire country, geographical area or people. See Lakoff and Johnson (1980: Chapter 7).

  22. For example, economic aid programmes should aim for keeping Turkey militarily strong ‘while at the same time bracing her tottering economy to resist the dangers of communist subversion’ (Times, 16 March, 1962).

  23. A discursive formation is characterized as integrating different thematic discourses (e.g. geostrategic, economic, cultural etc.) into one larger formation, as all the discourses are explicitly connected to each other.

References

  • Albert, Mathias (2005) ‘Von Rom nach Istanbul (und zurück): Europas Grenzen und ihre Entgrenzung’, in Paul Reuber, Anke Strüver and Günter Wolkersdorfer, eds, Politische Geographien Europas. Annäherungen an ein umstrittenes Konstrukt, 55–72, Münster: Lit.

    Google Scholar 

  • Albert, Mathias, Oliver Kessler and Stephan Stetter (2008) ‘On Order and Conflict: International. Relations and the Communicative Turn’, Review of International Studies 34 (S1): 43–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ashley, Richard K. (1988) ‘Untying the Sovereign State: A Double Reading of the Anarchy Problematique’, Millennium. Journal of International Studies 17 (2): 227–262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baecker, Dirk (2005) Form und Formen der Kommunikation, Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baasner, Frank, ed. (2008) Von welchem Europa reden wir? Reichweiten nationaler Europadiskurse, Baden-Baden: Nomos.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bahceli, Tozun (1980) ‘Turkey and the EEC — the Strains of Accession’, Revue d’Intégration Européenne/Journal of European Integration 3 (2): 221–237.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beer, Francis A . and Christ'l de Landtsheer, eds, (2004) Metaphorical World Politics, East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buzan, Barry and Thomas Diez (1999) ‘The European Union and Turkey’, Survival 41 (1): 41–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cederman, Lars-Erik (2000) ‘Political Boundaries and Identity Trade-Offs’, in Lars-Erik Cederman, ed., Constructing Europe's Identity: The External Dimension, 1–32, London: Lynne Rienner.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chilton, Paul (1996) Security Metaphors: Cold War Discourse from Containment to Common House, New York: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christiansen, Thomas, Knud-Erik Jørgensen and Antje Wiener, eds (2001) The Social Construction of Europe, London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connolly, William E (1978) The Terms of Political Discourse, Lexington: D.C. Heath.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delanty, Gerard (1995) Inventing Europe. Idea, Identity, Reality, Houndmills: Palgrave.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Derrida, Jacques (1997) Writing and Difference, London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diez, Thomas (1999) Die EU lesen. Diskursive Knotenpunkte in der britischen Europadebatte, Opladen: Leske+Budrich.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diez, Thomas (2001) ‘Europe as a Discursive Battleground: Discourse Analysis and European Integration Studies’, Cooperation and Conflict 36 (1): 5–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diez, Thomas (2004) ‘Europe's Others and the Return of Geopolitics’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs 17 (2): 319–335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fairclough, Norman (1995) Media Discourse, London: Edward Arnold.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel (1972) The Archaeology of Knowledge, New York: Pantheon Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fowler, Roger (1996) Linguistic Criticism 2nd edn, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallie, WB (1955) ‘Essentially Contested Concepts’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, New Series 56: 167–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • George, Stephen (1990) An Awkward Partner: Britain in the European Community, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giannakopoulos, Angelos and Konstadinos Maras, eds, (2005) Die Türkei-Debatte in Europa. Ein Vergleich, Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Giscard D’Estaing, Valery (2003) ‘Turkey is not Part of Europe’, New Perspectives Quarterly 20 (1): 30–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodman, Nelson (1978) Ways of Worldmaking, Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helvacioglu, Banu (1999) ‘The Paradoxical Logic of Europe in Turkey: Where Does Europe End’, The European Legacy 4 (3): 18–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howarth, David and Jacob Torfing, eds, (2005) Discourse Theory in european Politics: Identity, Policy and Governance, London: Palgrave.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hülsse, Rainer (2003) Metaphern der EU-Erweiterung als Konstruktionen europäischer Identität, Baden-Baden: Nomos.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jørgensen, Marianne and Louise Phillips (2002) Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method, London: Sage.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kneer, Georg and Armin Nassehi (1991) ‘Verstehen des Verstehens. Eine systemtheoretische Revision der Hermeneutik’, Zeitschrift für Soziologie 20 (5): 341–356.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kohli, Martin (2000) ‘The Battlegrounds of European Identity’, European Societies 2 (1): 113–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kramer, Heinz (1988) Die Europäische Gemeinschaft und die Türkei, Baden-Baden: Nomos.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krämer, Sybille (2001) Sprache, Sprechakt, Kommunikation. Sprachtheoretische Positionen des 20. Jahrhunderts, Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laclau, Ernesto (2005) On Populist Reason, London/New York: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laclau, Ernesto and Chantal Mouffe (2001) Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics 2nd edn, London/New York: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson (1980) Metaphors We Live By, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Landwehr, Achim (2004) Geschichte des Sagbaren. Einführung in die Historische Diskursanalyse 2nd edn, Tübingen: edition diskord.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larsen, Henrik (1997) Foreign Policy and Discourse Analysis: France, Britain and Europe, London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lenk, Hans (1993) Interpretationskonstrukte. Zur Kritik der interpretatorischen Vernunft, Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Link, Jürgen (1982) ‘Kollektivsymbolik und Mediendiskurse. Zur aktuellen Frage, wie subjektive Aufrüstung funktioniert’, kultuRRevolution 1 (1): 6–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann, Niklas (1992) ‘What is Communication?’ Communication Theory 2 (3): 251–259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann, Niklas (1995) ‘Sign as Form’, in Dirk Baecker, ed., Problems of Form, 46–63, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann, Niklas (1996) Die Realität der Massenmedien 2nd edn, Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann, Niklas (1999) Social Systems, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merten, Klaus (1977) ‘Nachrichtenrezeption als komplexer Kommunikationsprozeß. Ein Beitrag zur Theorie der Nachricht’, Publizistik 22 (4): 450–463.

    Google Scholar 

  • Musolff, Andreas (2000) ‘Political Imagery of Europe: A House Without Exit Doors?’ Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 21 (3): 216–229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nassehi, Armin (1997) ‘Kommunikation verstehen. Einige Überlegungen zur empirischen Anwendbarkeit einer systemtheoretisch informierten Hermeneutik’, in Tilmann Sutter, ed., Beobachtung verstehen, Verstehen beobachten. Perspektiven einer konstruktivistischen Hermeneutik, 134–163, Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Neumann, Iver (1998) Uses of the Other: ‘The East’ in European Identity Formation, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ricœur, Paul (1991) ‘What is a text? Explanation and Understanding’, in Mario J. Valdes, ed., A Ricœur Reader. Reflection and Imagination, 43–64, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rumelili, Bahar (2004) ‘Identity, Difference, and the EU’, Review of International Studies 30 (1): 27–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rumelili, Bahar (2008) Constructing Regional Community and Order in Europe and Southeast Asia, London: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Said, Edward W (1979) Orientalism, New York: Vintage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schleiermacher, Friedrich DE (1977) Hermeneutik und Kritik, Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwab-Trapp, Michael (2002) Kriegsdiskurse. Die politische Kultur des Krieges im Wandel 1991–1999, Opladen: Leske+Budrich.

    Google Scholar 

  • Somers, Margaret R (1994) ‘The Narrative Constitution of Identity: A Relational and Network Approach’, Theory and Society 23 (5): 605–649.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spencer-Brown, George (1997) Laws of Form, New York: E.P. Dutton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stetter, Stephan (2005) ‘The Politics of De-Paradoxification in Euro-Mediterranean Relations: Semantics and Structures of Cultural Dialogue’, Mediterranean Politics 10 (3): 331–348.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Titscher, Stefan, Michael Meyer, Ruth Wodak and Eva Vetter (2000) Methods of Text and Discourse Analysis, London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Torfing, Jacob (1999) New Theories of Discourse: Laclau, Mouffe and Žižek, Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trenz, Hans-Jörg (2004) ‘Media Coverage on European Governance: Exploring the European Public Sphere in National Quality Newspapers’, European Journal of Communication 19 (3): 291–319.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Dijk, Teun (1980) Textwissenschaft. Eine interdisziplinäre Einführung, Tübingen: Niemeyer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wæver, Ole (1993) ‘Europe Since 1945: Crisis to Renewal’, in Kevin Wilson and Jan van der Dussen, eds, The History of the Idea of Europe, 151–214, London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waldenfels, Bernhard (2006) Grundmotive einer Phänomenologie des Fremden, Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter, Jochen (2008) Die Türkei — ‘Das Ding auf der Schwelle’. (De-) Konstruktionen der Grenzen Europas, Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter, Jochen and Jan Helmig (2008) ‘Discursive Metaphor Analysis: (De)Construction(s) of Europe’, in Terrell Carver and Jernej Pikalo, eds, Political Language and Metaphor: Interpreting and Changing the World, 119–131, New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yurdusev, Nuri (2000) ‘Turkey and Europe: The Other in Identity Formation’, Zeitschrift für Türkeistudien 13 (1): 85–95.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the editors and the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Sociology, University of Bielefeld, P.O.-Box 100131, Bielefeld, D-33501, Germany

    Jochen Walter & Mathias Albert

Authors
  1. Jochen Walter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mathias Albert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jochen Walter or Mathias Albert.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Walter, J., Albert, M. Turkey on the European doorstep: British and German debates about Turkey in the European Communities. J Int Relat Dev 12, 223–250 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/jird.2009.13

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/jird.2009.13

Keywords

Search

Navigation