Counter-Conduct and the Europeanisation Discourse in Turkey

This paper analyses the process of Turkish Europeanization from the point of discursive institutionalism, which investigates how political goals of competing political forces influence Europeanization discourse. It applies counter-conduct analysis reflecting motivations and abilities of the domestic groups to conceptualize a Europeanization mechanism and to investigate how political elites use Europeanization to promote their particular agendas making it a legitimizing force in the domestic discourses. Since 2007, Turkey witnessed a reversal of reforms and the loss of the EU as a positive/normative reference point. We witness how Turkish elites question, oppose, and criticise Europeanization but do not fully reject it. The paper will analyse the AKP and Hizmet network references to Europeanization. Examining their political liberalisation, modernisation, and desecuritization counter-conduct discourses, it will assess the context of Turkish Europeanization and its possible impact on Western Balkans.