With or without you:The shift in discourses of identity in the EU-Turkey relationship

The long history of EU-Turkey relations paved Turkey’s path towards membership in 2005, though she is still a candidate country. After 2013, the stagnated relationship between the two increased the emphasis on strategic partnership more than membership, while less emphasis was given to ideational factors in the literature. In addition, the role of ideational factors in the EU’s enlargement policy remains understudied. To contribute to the literature, this study aims to explain the shift in discourses of identity through a discourse-historical analysis (DHA) of the EU’s identity-based approaches towards Turkey between 2013 and 2016 based on the social constructivist theory. Guided by the literature between 1999 and 2013, this thesis observes the themes through which Europeanness and Turkishness were constructed as a result of certain milestones in the relations. Taking 2013 as a major milestone because of the Gezi Park Protests and corruption investigations in Turkey which increased the EU’s concerns on Turkey’s democratic status, it is possible to observe the shifts in discourses of identity by analyzing 18 parliamentary debates on Turkey in the European Parliament which is a strong influencer in the EU’s enlargement policy. The analysis shows that Turkey was perceived as the EU’s geographical, cultural, historical, religious and civilizational other before 2013. In addition, Turkey was also presented as an acceding state to the EU which had democratic and territorial disputes. Between 2013 and 2016, Turkey was mostly perceived as the EU’s undemocratic other, while religious, civilizational and geographical discourses were still presen