Rome, IAI, June 2019, 4 p. (IAI Commentaries ; 19|41), 2019
Last Sunday’s re-run of Istanbul’s mayoral elections delivered a thundering defeat to Turkey’s ru... more Last Sunday’s re-run of Istanbul’s mayoral elections delivered a thundering defeat to Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its candidate Binali Yıldırım, resulting in the stunning electoral triumph of Ekrem İmamoğlu from the country’s main opposition Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP). Last Sunday’s elections have provided a refreshing demonstration that democracy is not dead and can in fact be consolidated. In this respect, the most powerful lesson of 23 June vote is that it has restored a degree of hope to Turkish politics and society – confirming that it is not naïve to believe that change is possible.
Cologne, University of Cologne, March 2019, 40 p. (FEUTURE Synthesis Paper), 2019
The FEUTURE final synthesis paper accomplishes two principal aims. First, it synthesizes FEUTURE’... more The 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 fu-ture. 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 comple-mentary to Turkey’s albeit stalled accession process. While being centered around a rules-based com-ponent represented by an upgraded EU-Turkey Customs Union agreement as a starting point, the as-sociation 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.
Rome, IAI, June 2019, 4 p. (IAI Commentaries ; 19|41), 2019
Last Sunday’s re-run of Istanbul’s mayoral elections delivered a thundering defeat to Turkey’s ru... more Last Sunday’s re-run of Istanbul’s mayoral elections delivered a thundering defeat to Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its candidate Binali Yıldırım, resulting in the stunning electoral triumph of Ekrem İmamoğlu from the country’s main opposition Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP). Last Sunday’s elections have provided a refreshing demonstration that democracy is not dead and can in fact be consolidated. In this respect, the most powerful lesson of 23 June vote is that it has restored a degree of hope to Turkish politics and society – confirming that it is not naïve to believe that change is possible.
Cologne, University of Cologne, March 2019, 40 p. (FEUTURE Synthesis Paper), 2019
The FEUTURE final synthesis paper accomplishes two principal aims. First, it synthesizes FEUTURE’... more The 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 fu-ture. 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 comple-mentary to Turkey’s albeit stalled accession process. While being centered around a rules-based com-ponent represented by an upgraded EU-Turkey Customs Union agreement as a starting point, the as-sociation 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.
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POMEAS Paper by Sinan Ekim
Papers by Sinan Ekim