The Concept of Turkishness and the EU Membership

Abstract

The issues of ethnicity, minorities, cultural rights - all taboos for the Turkish political and social context - emerged as one of the most discussed and hotly-debated concepts during the EU accession negotiations. The representatives of the official ideology resisted any attempts to change the hegemonic understanding of the nation- conceived as a homogeneous entity based on Turkishness. This paper attempts to locate the discussions surrounding the concept of Turkishness and minority rights in the recent years.