Europeanisation as Legitimacy to Identify as a ‘National Minority’: The Turkish Community in Greece

Abstract

The issue of national minorities has never ranked high on the European Union’s (eu’s) agenda. No legal or policy measures to protect Europe’s national minorities have been developed, reducing scholarly attention on the potential of Europeanisation of national minority politics to the minimum. This article addresses this misconception and argues that Europeanisation of national minority politics does occur, however, not where originally expected. By shifting attention to a poorly studied area - minority actors and their activities at the eu level – the article illustrates how minority actors create own change, how they are influenced by their own ‘usages of Europe’ and how this process helps to advance our knowledge of Europeanisation of today’s national minority politics.