Turkey Quo Vaids? Discourses on the Vital Interests of Turkish States in Retrospect

This paper focuses on how discourses on Turkey’s vital interests have been framed by political and societal elites since the early years of the young Turkish Republic. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the societal and historical background of metamorphoses of contemporary Turkish foreign policy. Beyond the idea of the existence of the predetermined, supra-political and fixed national interests and state identity legitimising those interests, this chapter attempts to trace Turkish elites’ conceptualisation of the country’s vital interests, and seeks to discuss continuities and changes in Turkish foreign policy. A post-structuralist view will be adopted around the discourse, as a practical approach will be adopted. Making references to the vital interests of the state has always been a tradition in Turkish politics, as in other modern nation-states. Like their modern counterparts, Turkish political elites generally justify their political decisions with reference to the principle of the vital interests of the state. This theological account not only (re)constructs the state itself, but also naturalises and masks the existence of social hierarchies. This white whale thus offers a great opportunity to those authorities who wish to preserve/maintain their privileged position and hegemony, especially in some selected areas such as the development of foreign and security policies. Ironically, claiming and identifying the vital interests is at the same time a great political discursive strategy for those at the periphery of the political system. What makes these alternative discussions on the country’s vital interests interesting is their power to illustrate how actors position themselves in relation to the inner and outer political system. In this sense, the modern state owes its ostensible transcendental character and its authenticated identity to the existence of vital interests. With its enabling and performative energy, the discourse on vital interests reveals societal tensions, political/ideological divisions and alternative views on the true destination of country. In this context, we want to analyse how the framing of Turkey’s vital interest—such as reaching the level of modern civilisations, i.e. the Western world—was embraced and/or disclaimed by their successors (who were the interlocutors of floating subject positions and structural constrains). Underlying the creation of this chapter is the need to place/position Turkish foreign policy in a sociological context and to uncover/reveal spatial-temporal continuities and discontinuities, which are seen as the intersection between the structural/material world and the domestic discursive battles for hegemony. This chapter will introduce readers to the societal dimensions, political rivalries and spatial-temporal uncertainties in Turkey’s long odyssey in placing itself within the world-system. It is based on the exploratory power of discourses and on the narratives on the articulation and naturalisation of the inconsistent character of vital interests in a floating spatial order. To this end, we will use a discourse analysis method that will analyse the most important official documents, declarations, press releases and speeches given by Turkish foreign policy elites.