Siyaset Bilimi ve Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü Koleksiyonu
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11779/1939
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Article Turkey and the EU: Partners or Competitors in the Western Balkans?(2019) Saatçioğlu, BekenThe article analyzes EU-Turkey relations in the Western Balkans (WB) in an attempt to uncover the cooperation and conflict potential between the two in the region. Specifically, it assesses the extent to which Turkey can be considered a partner of the EU versus representing acompetitor or even an alternative to Brussels for the WB countries. It argues that positing Turkey as a proactive, alternative regional power seeking to expand its presence and influence in the region at the EU’s expense are overstated.Despite the EU’s damaged credibility in the pursuit of its enlargement policy, Turkey’s capabilities, incentives and foreign policy priorities simply fall short of producing a competitive “Turkish model/alternative” in the region. First, there are practical limits to Turkey’s regional power status, which is far from representing a realistic substitute for the WB countries’ Euro-Atlantic ties. In addition, despite the difficulties ahead, these countries still aspire for integration into European structures, which is also aligned with Turkey’s foreign policy interests. Second, limitations aside, gaining hegemony in the WB is not Ankara’s foreign policy priority given the urgency of multiple policy issues waiting to be tackled on all fronts. Third, from a Realpolitik standpoint, Turkey and the EU are expected to constructively engage to find solutions for common challenges such as migration, which concerns the WB as well.Article Citation - Scopus: 16The Eu’s Response To the Syrian Refugee Crisis: a Battleground Among Many Europes(Routledge, 2020) Saatçioğlu, BekenThis article examines the European Union (EU)’s response to the 2015–2016 refugee crisis. Departing from the understanding that Europe is a contested phenomenon, it investigates how different – Thick, Thin, Parochial and Global – Europes influenced the EU’s management of the crisis culminating in the March 2016 EU-Turkey ‘refugee deal’. Two findings are advanced. First, European actors reacted differently to the EU’s initially attempted Thick Europe approach to the crisis, following their respective Europe conceptions. Second, faced with growing divisions, they ultimately united around a lowest common denominator solution represented by the refugee deal which illustrated Thin Europe at the expense of a more norm-based policy associated with Thick and Global Europes. The findings demonstrate the significance of embedding the various European reactions to the crisis within different Europe categories while showing that consensus was still possible to tackle an external problem.Book The Future of Eu-Turkey Relations: a Dynamic Association Framework Amidst Conflictual Cooperation(Istituto Affari Internazionali, 2019) Saatçioğlu, Beken; Tekin, Funda; Ekim, Sinan; Tocci, NathalieThe FEUTURE final synthesis paper accomplishes two principal aims. First, it synthesizes FEUTURE’s research findings that study EU-Turkey relations in the six thematic areas of politics, identity, economy, security, energy and migration, focusing on how their respective drivers generate different degrees of conflict and cooperation in the relationship. Based on this synthesis, it argues that the scenario of “conflictual cooperation” – where cooperation is likely to endure despite the prevalence of conflictual dynamics mostly emanating from politics – is set to define EU-Turkey relations in the foreseeable future. Second, it develops an institutional design for the future relationship which, given the fact that Turkey’s EU accession process has now become dormant, accepts conflict as an endemic feature of the relations but tries to mitigate it by deepening cooperation. Upon assessing differentiated integration models the EU follows with member- and non-member countries, the paper concludes that, as a result of geopolitical proximity as well as deepened, multifarious interactions over several centuries, the EU– Turkey relationship has become too complex and dynamic to be captured by any single such model. It thus suggests a new institutional framework, termed a “dynamic association”, that would be complementary to Turkey’s albeit stalled accession process. While being centered around a rules-based component represented by an upgraded EU-Turkey Customs Union agreement as a starting point, the association also includes more transactional dimensions of cooperation such as migration, security and energy. The paper concludes that conceptualized as such, the dynamic association promises to foster not only cooperative but also convergent trends between the EU and Turkey into and beyond the 2023 timeframe.Conference Object Book Part Ab'nin Mülteci Krizi: Normlar-çıkarlar Dikotomisi Üzerinden Ab'yi Yeniden Değerlendirmek(İktisadi Kalkınma Vakfı, 2017) Saatçioğlu, Beken2011 yılından beri devam etmekte olan Suriye iç savaşının en kritik sonuçlarından biri hiç şüphesiz yol açmış olduğu insani krizdir. Suriye halkının daha güvenli ve iyi bir yaşam için öncelikli olarak sınırdaş Türkiye topraklarına, zaman içinde ise artan biçimde Avrupa ülkelerine sığınma çabaları ile ortaya çıkan mülteci sorunu, İkinci Dünya Savaşı’ndan sonra Avrupa’nın en vahim insani krizi haline gelmiş, bundan dolayı da “Avrupa’nın mülteci krizi” olarak nitelendirilmiştir. 2015’in bahar aylarından itibaren Akdeniz ve Ege üzerinden Avrupa’ya sistematik mülteci akınının artışıyla derinleşen kriz, AB içinde çok ciddi bir kriz yönetimi ve koordinasyon sorununu da beraberinde getirmiştir. Avrupa Komisyonu ve Almanya önderliğinde, Avrupa ortak sığınma sisteminin reforme edilmesi ve mültecilerin belirli kotalar doğrultusunda mevcut Üye Devletlerde yeniden yerleştirilmesi esaslarına dayanarak geliştirilmeye çalışılan “Avrupa çözüm planı”, yerini zamanla krizin Türkiye gibi üçüncü ülkelere havale edilerek dışsallaştırılması yoluyla çözülmesi çabalarına bırakmıştır.Conference Object The Eu’s “crises” and Implications for Differentiated Integration Between the Eu and Turkey(2017) Saatçioğlu, BekenThe EU-Turkey relationship is in doldrums. Factors taking shape at various levels have imperiled Turkey's membership prospect to an unprecedented degree, with the result being that neither side believes in its realizability. This paper investigates how internal EU developments have recently come to bear on Turkey's EU accession process. It argues that the EU's many "crises" and possibility of disintegration brought to the fore by Brexit necessitate a realistic reconceptualization of the EU-Turkey partnership. First, the paper evaluates the EU's refugee crisis and the populist shockwaves it has triggered across Europe. While the management of the crisis boosted Turkey's value for the EU as a critical cooperation partner, anti-immigration and anti-EU rhetoric have gained pace among populist forces within several EU member-states as a reaction to refugee inflows. The paper assesses the implications of these multiple factors for the future shape of EU-Turkey relations. Second, it analyzes Brexit as a game-changer showing that EU membership can be set aside in favor of possibly new forms of interaction/cooperation with the EU. In this respect, the paper discusses the extent to which the evolving status of EU-Britain relationship can serve as a model for the strained EU-Turkey relations. It concludes that just like it is under way with Britain, Turkey-EU relations too can be negotiated as a mutually beneficial, functional partnership including, inter alia, a revitalized EU-Turkey customs union and cooperation in joint issue-areas such as migration.Conference Object Rising Illiberalism in the European Periphery and the Eu's Application of Membership Conditionality(2018) Saatçioğlu, BekenHow consistently has the EU used membership conditionality to address illiberalism? Has it sufficiently and effectively used its conditional, transformative capacity in the first place, i.e., independent of the domestic factors gaining ground in third countries and paving the way for illiberalism? This paper proposes to assess this question by focusing on the EU’s recent relations with Turkey, as the longest standing EU candidate, within the context of the 2015 Syrian refugee crisis. This episode of EU-Turkey relations provides a real test case for the EU’s ability and willingness to consistently use conditionality since doing so coincided with the EU’s other foreign policy aims linked with external border security (relatedly also, the integrity of the Schengen area) and even, protection against terrorism.Article Turkey and the Eu: Strategic Rapprochement in the Shadow of the Refugee Crisis(E-International Relations, 2016) Saatçioğlu, BekenThe year 2015 closed with crucial developments formally boosting Turkey-EU relations in the wake of Europe’s refugee crisis. The EU-Turkey deal reached on 29 November 2015 raised Turkey’s strategic importance for the EU to a whole new level. The Turkish government was offered key economic and political incentives in exchange for its agreement to host the Syrian refugees in Turkey, while attending to their socio-economic needs and help stem the refugee flow to Europe. Among the perks were a generous financial aid package of 3 billion euros to support Turkey in this daunting task, the prospect of visa liberalization for Turkish citizens by the end of 2016 contingent on Turkey’s full implementation of the 2013 EU-Turkey readmission agreement and a “re-energized” EU-Turkey accession negotiations process.