Securitizing the Aegean: de-Europeanizing Greek–Turkish relations (original) (raw)
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Turkish Studies, 2022
This paper aims to evaluate the state of Greek-Turkish relations in light of recent developments leading to the reconfiguration of Turkish foreign policy. Following twenty years of détente and relative calm in bilateral relations, the year 2020 witnessed two escalations in Greek-Turkish relations, one in March 2020 involving refugees and immigrants on the Greek-Turkish land border and another in August 2020 involving military vessels of the two countries. The refugee crisis and energy exploration and monetization efforts in the Eastern Mediterranean have raised tensions at a moment the political and institutional tools for the promotion of conflict resolution between Greece and Turkey linked to Turkey's EU membership perspective appear to be obsolete. This paper seeks an answer to the question whether structural or ideational factors played the most prominent role for the recent escalation of the Greek-Turkish disputes and which analytical framework can be more useful in light of the recent shifts in Turkish domestic and foreign policy and Turkey's relations with the West, as well as Greece's post-crisis ambition to reemerge as a regional actor in the Balkans, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
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The main contention of this article is that the recent thaw in bilateral Greek-Turkish relations is promising yet insufficient for the future stability and cooperation in and around the Aegean Sea. To the surprise of committed observers of Turkish–Greek relations, the two countries set into motion a cooperative interaction process in the middle of 1999 and since then have succeeded in sorting out some problematical issues between them. Taking stock of this process, some observers have rushed to conclude that this process is irreversible and as long as both preserve their aspirations to further ‘Europeanize’, neither the Cyprus dispute nor the Aegean problems would remain unsolved. Either sooner or later, they would come to an everlasting settlement over these issues lest their continuation hamper their desires to become true Europeans by taking their seats around the same EU table in Brussels. However, as this article argues, there do not exist ample reasons for feeling optimistic about the future. The main reason lies in the prevalence of instrumental-strategic thinking on both shores of the Aegean Sea.
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The causes of the current Greek-Turkish rapprochement progress are explored in this book in relation both to the international environment, which is increasingly conducive to this progress, and significant domestic changes. ... The causes of the current Greek-Turkish rapprochement progress are explored in this book in relation both to the international environment, which is increasingly conducive to this progress, and significant domestic changes.
In Depth
Since the eruption of the Aegean dispute in 1976 four dangerous standoffs between Turkey and Greece in the Aegean Sea brought the two NATO members to the brink of war. In all these cases though, the standoffs ended with a détente and a promising diplomatic initiative to ease tensions and solve the dispute. In 1976 and 1987, a few years after Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus and the de facto division of the island, the two Sismik 1 (a Turkish research ship dispatched in the Aegean, offshore Greek islands) incidents ended after US and NATO mediating interventions and the two parties returned to the negotiations table, in both cases with promising perspectives. In 1996 the two countries got very close to military conflict due to the crisis in Imia islet and Turkey’s dispute of Greece’s sovereignty. Three years later, following a persisting US diplomatic initiative and mutual assistance shared by the two neighboring countries after the deadly earthquakes in Marmara and Athens, Turkey and Greece achieved the Helsinki consensus that paved the way for Turkey’s membership negotiations with the European Union (EU). However, and despite the settlement mechanism agreed in Helsinki, the dispute carried on. In 2020, another standoff with very similar attributes seems to be followed by a period of détente and diplomatic efforts to solve the dispute. Apparently, the pattern lives on. This article examines the origins and the evolution of this recent crisis and tries to estimate the future trends, given the repeating nature of these spirals of tension.
Turkish Foreign Policy Toward Greece: From Europeanization to De-Europeanization
TESAM Akademi Dergisi, 2021
This paper aims to examine Turkey's foreign policy toward Greece in the post-1999 era. It argues that the direction and changes in Turkish foreign policy toward Greece are impacted by the Turkey-EU relations. To examine these arguments, this study raises the following questions: What are the changes in Turkey's Greece policy after 1999? and what role has the EU played in these policy changes? This research utilizes Börzel and Risse's three-step Europeanisation framework and the de-Europeanisation and counter-conduct concepts to evaluate the Europeanisation and de-Europeanisation of Turkey's Greece policy. By doing so, it contributes to the Europeanisation and the growing de-Europeanisation literature in general and the literature on Turkish foreign policy towards Greece in specific.
Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies
This paper seeks to survey, analyse and evaluate the rôle of Greece and Cyprus vis-à-vis the security and geo-economic dimension of the Eastern Mediterranean through the lens of integration and regional strategic interests in the region. Despite the enlargement of NATO and the European Union, which have striven to integrate new countries into the Western community, the regional balance of interests has proven to be more unstable than predicted by the proponents of a Westernized and peaceful Eastern Mediterranean. Influenced by the strengthening rôle of Russia and Turkey, as well as by internal structural problems in the social, political and economic spheres, the Hellenic Republic and the Republic of Cyprus find themselves in a maelstrom of different and often conflicting regional interests, over which they have only minimal control. Developments are likely to have an impact on not only European integration, but on regional stability as a whole, since it can be argued that the old power structures of NATO and the EU are now having to contend with new regional factors. The article concludes with the observation that the situation in the region is confusing and volatile in diplomatic terms.
FROM GREY ZONES TO BLUE HOMELANDS: TALES OF LOST OPPORTUNITIES IN GREEK-TURKISH RELATIONS
Conference Proceedings - International Congress on Security, Peace and Stability in the Eastern Mediterranean - Çağ and Çukurova Universitities, 2022
The latest persistent period of tension between Greece and Turkey that has started effectively in 2019 is the first such period after the 1999 Helsinki EU Summit that ended a difficult decade. The 1990's tension built-up that resulted in a series of crises, 'hot' incidents and widespread mutual suspicion between the two states, was effectively annulled by the rapprochement that paved a difficult-albeit realistic-road for a final solution to the bilateral disputes, including the Cyprus issue. The long-term success of the venture, however, was heavily dependent on bold politics in both sides of the Aegean Sea and mutual concessions from all parties to the disputes. Less than twenty years later, the Aegean Sea and the east of the Mediterranean Sea are once again brewing new tensions, triggered by the old unresolved issues. In addition, as recent energy discoveries have put the area in the European energy map, a number of new problems have risen, and with the active involvement of several more players, including the area's regional powers, as well as western European states with regional interests, the situation has become significantly more complicated. The failure to follow through commitments in the post-Helsinki years, has resulted in the re-emergence of the Aegean Sea disputes and reinforced the deadlock in Cyprus. Today, the key parties are called upon handling the disputes, under far more complicated conditions than in 1999.
The recent thaw in bilateral Greek-Turkish relations is promising, yet insufficient for future stability and cooperation in and around the Aegean Sea. The main reason lies in the prevalence of instrumental-strategic thinking on the part of both states. Neither Greece nor Turkey has approached the settlement of their disputes from a perspective that would imply an eagerness to build a collective identity based on the institutional norms of European international society as represented by the European Union. On the contrary, Europeanisation has not been an end in itself but a means for the materialisation of their preconceived national interests. The underlying motivation behind their attempts to reach a solution appears to have arisen from instrumental concerns vis-à-vis both the EU and each other. The dynamics of their independent relations with the European Union seem to have compelled them to come to a modus vivendi over these issues, since otherwise their relative status vis-à-vis the EU would likely deteriorate. This article will discuss the main aspects of the latest Turkish-Greek cooperation process within the framework of rationalist instrumentalist and sociological institutionalist debate in international relations theory. It will be contended that a lasting and long-term cooperation between the two countries can only follow the formation of collective identities and common national foreign policy interests, particularly as they relate to the European Union framework. The recent thaw in bilateral Greek-Turkish relations is promising, yet insufficient to ensure future stability and cooperation in and around the Aegean Sea. In the middle of 1999, the two countries set into motion a cooperative interaction process and since then have succeeded in sorting out several thorny issues. Not surprisingly, the main platform on which they have undertaken this