ZOLTÁN EGERESI Neo-Ottomanist Hegemonic Order and its Implications on Ankara’s Foreign Policy in the Balkans Budapest, 2018 Corvinus University of Budapest International Relations Multidisciplinary Doctoral School International and Security Studies Subprogram PHD THESIS Zoltán EGERESI Neo-Ottomanist Hegemonic Order and its Implications on Ankara’s Foreign Policy in the Balkans Supervisors: László Csicsmann, Dr. Habil Erzsébet N. Rózsa, Dr. Habil. Budapest, 2018 © Zoltán Egeresi Table of Contents Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................................... 5 List of Figures, Tables and Maps ................................................................................................... 6 List of Abbreviations ..................................................................................................................... 8 Introduction 10 Hypotheses, methodology and literature review ....................................................................... 21 1. Hypotheses ........................................................................................................................ 21 1.1. Conceptualizing Turkish foreign policy ...................................................................... 21 1.2. Hypothesis 1 – Neo-Ottomanism in Turkish foreign policy ....................................... 28 1.3. Hypothesis 2 – The AKP’s neoliberal foreign policy ................................................... 38 2. Theoretical Foundations .................................................................................................... 42 2.1. Gramscianism ............................................................................................................ 42 2.2. Neo-Gramscianism..................................................................................................... 47 3. Methodology ............................................................................................................... 55 4. Literature review on the AKP’s foreign policy ............................................................ 57 4.1. Leaving the friends or justified claims for an autonomous foreign policy? .............. 59 4.2. Qualitative change in foreign policy making? ............................................................ 64 4.3. Continuation of the previous governments’ foreign policy? ..................................... 73 4.4. Academic literature on the Turkish foreign policy and the Balkans .......................... 77 Constructing hegemony: the AKP’s rule in Turkey ..................................................................... 86 1. Emergence of the Islamist counter-hegemonic project ............................................. 86 1.1. New hegemonic bloc and the establishment of the Republic ............................... 86 1.2. Naissance of the Islamist Middle Classes and the rise of Islamist parties ............. 89 2. The AKP’s hegemony ................................................................................................... 96 2.1. Electoral success: making electoral hegemony ...................................................... 96 2.2. War of position ..................................................................................................... 102 2.2.1.Neoliberalism and economic success ..................................................... 102 2.2.2.The role of the EU in hegemony building ............................................... 107 2.2.3.Changing identity discourse ................................................................... 111 2.2.4.Promise of democratization ................................................................... 113 2.2.5.Conflicts with veto powers ..................................................................... 115 2.3. Moment of hegemony .......................................................................................... 120 2.3.1.Cementing the AKP’s power................................................................... 120 2.3.2.Ottomanalgia.......................................................................................... 123 2.3.3.Making Neo-Ottomanist cultural policy ................................................. 127 2.4. Moment of crisis ....................................................................................................... 132 3 2.4.1.Challenges of the hegemonic order ........................................................ 132 2.4.2.Successful crisis management and growing authoritarianism ............... 136 2.4.3.Towards Caesarism? ............................................................................... 141 2.5. Limits of AKP’s hegemony ............................................................................................. 144 2.5.1.Societal features and electoral geography ............................................. 144 Turkish foreign policy in the Balkans ......................................................................................... 149 1. Decomposing the Balkans ......................................................................................... 149 1.1. Ottoman heritage and kin in the Balkans ................................................................. 149 1.2 The Balkans ‘in’ Turkey .............................................................................................. 164 1.3. Portraying the Balkans – the region in the AKP’s rethoric ....................................... 170 2. Co-opting the Kin: Neo-Ottomanist features of the foreign policy .................................. 180 2.1. Main patterns in Turkish foreign policy in the Balkans until 2002 ........................... 180 2.2. Foreign policy of co-option ...................................................................................... 187 2.3. Institutions of co-option ........................................................................................... 192 2.4. Societal actors and hegemony: relations with TFP .................................................. 212 2.5. Local allies: the co-option in practice ....................................................................... 237 3. Turkey`s economic relations with the Balkans .......................................................... 243 3.1. The role of economy in Turkish foreign policy ...................................................... 243 3.2. Evaluation of Turkish-Balkans economic relations ............................................... 249 Conclusion 264 List of References ...................................................................................................................... 274 Primary Sources .................................................................................................................... 274 Secondary sources ................................................................................................................ 276 News and reports ................................................................................................................. 301 Statistical data and other ..................................................................................................... 306 List of the Author’s related publications ................................................................................... 307 Author’s conference participations ........................................................................................... 310 4 Acknowledgments First of all, I would like to thank to my supervisor Dr. habil. Erzsébet Rózsa N. and Dr. habil László Csicsmann for their continuous support, their patience and motivation. I am grateful for the encouragement, academic and mental support to Alexandra Nádor, Ágnes Bocskay, Dr. Ateș Uslu, Prof. Dr. Atila Eralp, Dr. Balázs Vizi, Berat Kılıç, Ceyda Özden, Diána Szőke, Dr. Emre Saral, Éva Ködmön, Mehran Ghasabeh, Miloš Marković, Dr. Mustafa Türkeș, Dr. Muzaffer Senel, Dr. Nándor Bárdi, Noémi Ritter, Özge Memișoǧlu, Dr. Özlem Kader, Róbert Venyige, Szandra Pátyodi, Dr. Srđan Mićić. I would like to express my gratitude to my former and current bosses, including Prof. Dr. József Padányi, Dr. Sándor Gallai and Dr. Péter Tálas for supporting me during the years of research and for their constructive attitude concerning my frequent visits to Turkey and the Balkans. Furthermore, I am also thankful to my colleagues at Center for Strategic and Defence Studies for their methodological, structural and stylistic advices. Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family: my parents for supporting me wholeheartedly throughout writing this thesis and never forgetting to ask when the work would be finished. Last but not least, I would like to thank my family: my parents for supporting me wholeheartedly throughout writing this thesis and keep asking me when the work would be finished. 5 List of Figures, Tables and Maps Chart 1. AKP's electoral performance (p. 96.) Chart 2. Media Freedom in Turkey (p. 139.) Chart 3. AKP's electoral performance and its share of parliamentary mandates (p. 145.) Chart 4. CHP's electoral performance and its share of parliamentary mandates (p. 145.) Chart 5. MHP's electoral performance and its share of parliamentary mandates (p.147.) Chart 6. Kurdish parties' elecotral performance and their share of parliamentary mandates (p. 147.) Chart 7. Turkey’s ODA towards the Balkans and its share in the total Turkish ODA without Syria (p. 195.) Chart 7. The evoltuion of Turkey’s export and import during the AKP era