Some of our PARTNERS
Other CONTRIBUTIONS on EU-Turkey relations

2017, again, has been a challenging year for EU-Turkey relations. One can say that they have reached an all-time low with open debates on the possibility to suspend accession negotiations, almost unprecedented tensions in Turkey’s bilateral relations with a number of EU member states, plans to modernize the Customs Union on halt, and the window of opportunity for solving the Cyprus conflict closed. At the same time, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini recently reassured that “the accession process continues, it is not suspended, nor ended but as you might know, we are currently not working on opening any new negotiation chapter.” Hence, regardless of the current state of the relationship there seems to be little doubt that Turkey has always been and is in future likely to remain one of the most important countries for the European Union in economic, political and geostrategic terms. Turkey remains a “key strategic partner” for the EU while the aim, form and scope of Turkey’s association or integration with the EU is today more than ever a highly controversial question.
The future of European integration also seems to be severely challenged. European integration has been repeatedly in crises and, so far, the EU has always emerged stronger out of each crisis. Whether this will remain a valid statement will depend on several issues. We can observe a rise of Euroscepticism across the EU’s member states, several member states including Germany operate on an interim government because of difficulties to build a stable and lasting coalition government, negotiations on the Brexit started and turned sour right afterwards and the French President Emmanuel Macron has outlined his ambitious plans for the future of the EU – in form of differentiated integration if need be – but it is highly unlikely that him alone or together with Germany will be able to pull this through if not all member states fully endorse this vision of Europe.
Against this backdrop, the EU’s future constitution will have an impact on EU-Turkey relations and in turn the future of Europe should not be discussed without including Turkey in the picture. Policy areas such as migration, energy and security are just selected examples for Turkey’s relevance.
These developments constitute challenges in the political and academic field alike. The Jean Monnet Network VIADUCT – Enhancing Visibility of the Academic Dialogue on EU-Turkey Cooperation, coordinated by Prof Wolfgang Wessels (Coordinator) and Dr Funda Tekin (Project Director) and managed by Marieke Eckhardt at the Centre for Turkey and EU Studies (CETEUS), targets prominently the latter field. It aims to foster research and teaching on EU-Turkey relations that reflect the historical complexity and volatility of the relationship. There are international research projects as well as many smaller and nationally funded studies and projects dealing with Turkey, including its relationship with the EU.

Linking these different projects, diffusing knowledge on the European Integration process and exploiting synergies between international players constitutes real added-value for European Integration studies.
To this end, VIADUCT builds a large network with a total of 41 partner institutions in 36 countries – i.e. from every EU member state, from Turkey as well as from Egypt, Georgia, Iceland, Iraq, Israel, Norway, and Switzerland – extending its outreach in research and teaching beyond the EU.
VIADUCT’s objective is, hence, to promote research, teaching and policy dialogue on EU-Turkey relations. This shall be achieved by establishing an intergenerational, interdisciplinary, international and intertemporal network with a balanced geographical coverage, exchanging best practices in research and teaching across national borders in order to inform, foster and substantiate academic and policy dialogue on EU-Turkey relations, and building knowledge by improving and enhancing teaching on this topic with the aim of offering the younger generation insights into “real life” political processes and scientific conferences alike and with a view to mutual enhancement of good practices.
The network has been active since 1 September 2017 and will run for a three-year period. During the past months we have set up the network structures including the website (www.viaduct.uni-koeln.de) and have met with the Steering Group to detail our upcoming activities. VIADUCT has four clusters of activities: Face-to-Face meetings in three annual VIADUCT weeks (the first of which will take place in Brussels on 23-27 April 2018), online exchange and dissemination platforms, publications, and multiplication. Within these clusters VIADUCT inter alia organises seminars for master and PhD students, a teacher’s training seminar, guest lectures and public debates, as well as paper series and awards for outstanding research and teaching. We would like to especially raise your awareness on three calls that are being issued: the VIADUCT Teaching Award (deadline for nominations 15 February 2018), the VIADUCT Teachers’ training workshop in Prague (30 May – 1 June 2018, deadline for application 15 January 2018) and the VIADUCT teaching papers (deadline for submission of manuscripts 28 February 2018).
We are looking forward to inspiring three years of networking on research and teaching on EU-Turkey relations and to sharing our research findings and best practices with you.

 

Alaranta, Toni. National and State Identity in Turkey: The Transformation of the Republic's Status in the International System. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
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Alaranta, Toni. Contemporary Kemalism: from universal secular-humanism to extreme Turkish nationalism. London: Routledge, 2014.
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Alaranta, Toni. ‘The EU-Turkey Stalemate: Detecting the Root Causes of the Dysfunctional Relationship', FIIA Briefing Paper 201, September 2016, Helsinki: The Finnish Institute of International Affairs.
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Alaranta, Toni. ‘Turkey’s political direction: Authoritarianism, liberal democracy or dissolution?’, FIIA Working Paper 90, January 2016, Helsinki: The Finnish Institute of International Affairs.
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Alaranta, Toni. 'Turkish Islamism and Nationalism Before and After the Failed Coup Attempt, in: The Turkey Analyst, 1st December, 2016. Read it here.
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Mikhelidze, Nona (2017) Turkey’s Policy in the Black Sea Region: Oscillating between Pragmatism and Opportunism in S. Toperich and A. Ünver Noi (Eds), Turkey and Transatlantic Relations, Center for Transatlantic Relations, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC.
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Siddi, Marco. ‘EU energy policy after the failed coup in Turkey: implications for the Southern gas corridor and Turkish Stream’, FIIA Comment 18/2016, Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Helsinki.
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Siddi, Marco. ‘The Scramble for Energy Supplies to South Eastern Europe: The EU’s Southern Gas Corridor, Russia’s Pipelines and Turkey’s Role’, in M. Schröder, W. Wessels and M. O. Bettzuege (eds.), Turkey as an Energy Hub?, Nomos, 2017, pp. 49-66.
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Siddi, Marco. ‘The Southern Gas Corridor: Challenges to a geopolitical approach in the EU’s external energy policy’, FIIA Briefing Paper, 216/2017. Read it here.
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Tekin, Funda (2016) "Türkei", read the full article in German here.
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Turhan, Ebru (2017), “Thinking out of the accession box: Potentials and limits of internal and external differentiated integration between Turkey and the EU”, CIFE Policy Paper, No. 58, July 2017. Read it here.

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Turhan, Ebru (2017), “Mülteci Krizinin AB-Türkiye İlişkilerine Etkileri: AB’ye Üyelik Sürecinden Bir “Stratejik Ortaklığa Doğru mu?” (The Impact of the Refugee Crisis on the Relations between Turkey and the EU: From EU Accession Process towards a  “Strategic Partnership?”” , İstanbul Ticaret Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, Yıl: 16, Sayı: 31, pp. 647-663

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Turhan, Ebru (2017), “Domestication of Germany’s European Policy and German Leadership in the EU: The Cases of Eurozone Crisis and Refugee Crisis”, 31st International Academic Conference, London, 29-31 May 2017, Proceedings of the 31st International Academic Conference, London, pp. 276-284. Read it here.
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Yorulmazlar, Emirhan and Turhan, Ebru (2017), “Turkish Foreign Policy towards the Arab Spring: Between Western Orientation and Regional Disorder”, in Bülent Aras and Fuat Keyman (eds.), Turkey, the Arab Spring and Beyond, (New York: Routledge), pp. 89-104. Read it here.

Our mailing address is:
viaduct@tepsa.eu
 
 To know more about VIADUCT and its activites you can contact the project manager, Marieke Eckhardt, at:
marieke.eckhardt@uni-koeln.de

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