“Only Strong States Can Survive in Turkey's Geography”: The uses of “geopolitical truths” in Turkey

Bilgin, Pınar

doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2007.04.003

Cited by 71 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 7 publications

(4 reference statements)

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“…This formulation is premised upon constructing an all-knowing and ever-present 'international' that strips the 'actors' of any agency (Bilgin 2007). Furthermore, it is a deeply Eurocentric rendering of the international.…”

Section: Locating 'Gezi' and 'Turkey' In The Third Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enacting the International/Reproducing Eurocentrism

Çapan

2017

Contexto int.

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This article focuses on the way in which Eurocentric conceptualisations of the 'international' are reproduced in different geopolitical contexts. Even though the Eurocentrism of International Relations has received growing attention, it has predominantly been concerned with unearthing the Eurocentrism of the 'centre' , overlooking its varied manifestations in other geopolitical contexts. The article seeks to contribute to discussions about Eurocentrism by examining how different conceptualisations of the international are at work at a particular moment, and how these conceptualisations continue to reproduce Eurocentrism. It will focus on the way in which Eurocentric designations of spatial and temporal hierarchies were reproduced in the context of Turkey through a reading of how the 'Gezi Park protests' of 2013 and 'Turkey' itself were written into the story of the international.

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Section: Locating 'Gezi' and 'Turkey' In The Third Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enacting the International/Reproducing Eurocentrism

Çapan

2017

Contexto int.

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“…Though Turkey abrogated any claims to sovereignty over the island in 1923, Cyprus continued to occupy an important place in Turkey's national narrative as a territory ceded by the Ottoman Empire (Uzer, 2011: 124). Second, the island's proximity to the shores of Anatolia rendered it a potential strategic threat due to the demand of a majority of Cypriots for unification with Greece, Turkeys' traditional rival (Bilgin, 2007;752). Third, the wellbeing of the Turkish Cypriot minority was considered a national concern in Turkey (Nevzat, 2005).…”

Section: Constructing Geopolitical Emergenciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Colonial conquests and the politics of normalization: The case of the Golan Heights and Northern Cyprus

Ram

2015

Political Geography

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a b s t r a c tThe space of exception has been extensively discussed as a location in which governing technologies are deployed through the suspension and manipulation of the norm. The scholarship on the subject has underscored the ways in which various localities can be encamped, which alludes to the dynamic in which spaces of exception can be shaped through the application of various means of sovereign violence that produces new and unpredictable norms. Building on this literature, the article analyzes the ways in which the exception is intentionally used in order to spatially construct the norm. Two case studies are discussed: Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights and the Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus. The article's main aim is to show how the state of emergency, which provided the justification for deploying exceptional meansdoccupation and subsequent colonizationdwas domesticated. By domestication I mean a situation whereby the state of emergency is not fully negated, but rather rearticulated and redeployed in order to reshape the space and transform it so that it is concomitantly both threatening and normal. I go on to show, however, how despite the processes of spatial normalization the state of exception always resurfaces.This article examines how occupying forces deploy exceptional means to reconstruct contested territories so as to normalize and in thus way fortify their presence. Analyzing two case studiesdthe Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights and the Turkish occupation of Northern CyprusdI show that the objective of the normalization process has in each case been different. Israel normalized its presence in the Golan in order to incorporate this region into its own territory, while Turkey has been normalizing its presence in Northern Cyprus in order to craft it as Turkish without fully integrating it into its own body politic. However, and despite these differences, a similar rationale has in both cases led the core statesdIsrael and Turkeydto employ a twofold normalization strategy during the conquest and subsequent occupation.On the one hand, the core states accentuated the geostrategic risks (real or constructed) embodied in the territories captured and presented them as constituting a threat that could be dealt with only through the imposition of a state of emergency and the deployment of exceptional means (e.g., ethnic cleansing, widespread destruction). On the other hand, and simultaneously, the core states strove to transform these contested spaces and reproduce them as normal in order to render them non-threatening.In other words, the core states present the spaces they had occupied as both an exception (a threat that needs to be controlled and managed) and simultaneously as normal. Examining how the strategies employed by the occupying states are informed by this tension, I show that the incongruity cannot be fully managed. The fact that these territories are colonized and are therefore constituted as spaces of exception is ultimately re-exposed.Following a brief literature r...

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“…The actual characteristics of this state and sources of its power are different from what is presented in the existing literature. 8 The focus in the literature is on the instrumentalist nature of the state, which only aims to serve the well-being of the citizens with the least possible ideological baggage. State mechanisms should be designed to reflect strong capabilities and a compassionate treatment that together would provide maximum benefit to the citizens.…”

Section: Central Countrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Reform and Capacity Building in the Turkish Foreign Ministry: Bridging the Gap between Ideas and Institutions

Aras¹

2015

Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies

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“Only Strong States Can Survive in Turkey's Geography”: The uses of “geopolitical truths” in Turkey

Cited by 71 publications

References 7 publications

Enacting the International/Reproducing Eurocentrism

Enacting the International/Reproducing Eurocentrism

Colonial conquests and the politics of normalization: The case of the Golan Heights and Northern Cyprus

Reform and Capacity Building in the Turkish Foreign Ministry: Bridging the Gap between Ideas and Institutions

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