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Will Turkey tango with Europe?

14 May 2009 / 14:05:32  GRReporter
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“As a result of Turkey’s improved relationships with Europe, and the its prospective integration in the EU, the country’s political culture is opening out, turning into more democratic one,” said Giannis Grigoriadis in the presentation of his research “Trials of Europeanisation: Turkish Political Culture and the European Union.”


Grigoriadis has been analyzing the challenging topic of the influence Turkey’s relationships with the EU have on its political culture, since the moment Turkey became a candidate-member and began the integration process in 1999. Grigoriadis himself admits the difficulty of the task to investigate the subject without letting current prejudices have any influence on him, and at the same time assume the position of a critique and analyzer, able to provide guidelines and solutions in the country’s politics.


This is the first book launching a dispute, and placing on the public scene the issue of Turkey’s progress towards the European Union, the stages in the country’s political development, and its accommodation. At the same time it analyzes two broad subjects: the fact that Turkish politicians already admit that the Kurdish problem’s solution should be reached through political negotiations, and, second, the connection between politics and religion, as well as the liberalization of expressing religious views.


Giannis Grigoriadis’s research aims to reveal what is the impact that the political reformations in Turkey have on society, on the link between the state and its citizens, and to what extend is religion related to the foundation of political and national identity. The author began his presentation with the words: “a lot is said about Turkey, but very little is known” and Athens News editor in chief noted that the most interesting fact regarding the country and its entrance in the EU structure is the irreversibility of the already started reformation process.


Turkey must earn its membership by doing the reformations needed; but it has to be given the opportunity to do this, too, said Grigoriadis. Lately, things haven’t been going very well, processes are slowing down- the truth is that ten years from now both Turkey and the EU will be different but, however, the country’s integration may become more difficult, suggested the author.   


Prof, Theodore Couloumbis, who made the book presentation, pointed out the favorable consequences that Turkey’s integration prospective in 1999 had on the liberalization of the Turkish political culture, which is experiencing a change- from a culture of a state of nationals, to a culture of a country of citizens.


Giannis Grigoriadis is a lecturer in the faculty of Turkish and contemporary Asian languages and culture studies at the Athenian University, and an ELIAMEP researcher. His book “Trials of Europeanisation: Turkish Political Culture and the European Union” was published by Palgrave Macmillan, and presented by the Vice President of ELIAMEP (Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy), Theodore Couloumbis, the editor in chief of the most printed English-language Greek newspaper, John Psaropoulos, and the journalist Pashos Mandravelis.


 

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