Membership Bid Research Articles

The “Subjects” of Ottoman International Law

Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 223–234 Copyright © 2016 Ottoman and Turkish T Studies Association. doi:10.2979/jottturstuass.3.2.02 The “Subjects” of Ottoman International Law Lâle Can and Michael Christopher Low The impetus for this special issue of the Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association grew out of a series of workshops and panels, all of which pointed toward a critical mass of new research on Ottoman engagement with questions of sovereignty, citizenship, and extraterritoriality. In heated discussions about what it meant to be an Ottoman “national” versus a “citizen” or “subject,” and conversations about the provenance of the legal advisors in the Ottoman Foreign Ministry who did the day-to-day work of defending the empire ’s sovereignty, there was a clear consensus that these topics merited greater attention and precision in terms. As guest editors, our own paths toward these subjects grew out of a recognition of what was missing in our work on different facets of Ottoman management of the steamship-era hajj. While neither of us set out to make international law a central concern of our research, questions of jurisdiction and protection, nationality and subjecthood, mobility regulation and passports, and the documentary practices underpinning them seemed to continually redirect our efforts. At every turn in the Ottoman archive, digital searches for “foreign pilgrims” directed us to a trove of documents produced E\WKHMXULVWVDWWKH2WWRPDQ2I¿FHRI/HJDO&RXQVHO +XNXN0úDYLUOL÷LøVWL úDUH2GDVÕ), the Hamidian-era bureau formed to navigate the landscape of Eurocentric international law. These archival sources provided unparalleled insight into the mechanics of empire, and disrupted long-held assumptions about imperial logic and governance. However, as we began to grasp the sigQL ¿FDQFHRIWKLVEXUHDXIRUVWXG\LQJWKH+DPLGLDQHUDZHEHFDPHDFXWHO\ aware of the deep disconnect between its omnipresence in the Ottoman archive and its curious absence in the extant historiography. In trying to understand the role that the +XNXN0úDYLUOL÷L øVWLúDUH2GDVÕ played in diplomacy and statecraft , we quickly found that many of the most basic institutions and practices 224 Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, Vol. 3.2 related to the Ottoman state’s formulation and dissemination of international legal expertise had barely garnered more than stray remarks.1 The work of addressing these lacunae resulted in collaborations with colleagues that revealed a wider constellation of shared frustrations. Foremost among them was the pervasive assumption that Ottoman legal reforms, both international and domestic, were merely reactions to the pressures of the EastHUQ 4XHVWLRQ$QLQWHUUHODWHGSUREOHPKDVEHHQWKHFRQÀDWLRQRIWKHGLSORPDWic history of the Eastern Question with the history of international law, both of which have been marred by an over-reliance on European sources. While there is a recognition that the Ottoman state struggled to prove its acceptance of the emerging civilizational norms of “international society” in a bid for full and equal membership in the European family of nations, the story of this effort remains skewed.2 Previous studies of Ottoman engagement with international law have tended to overemphasize certain aspects of public international law that grew out of the Eastern Question: peace treaties, annexation, border demarcation , and territorial losses. Likewise, existing scholarship has generally put forward a rather narrow vision of private international law associated with consular jurisdiction over European merchants and their non-Muslim protégés. This myopic emphasis on non-Muslim minorities has reinforced a reading of late Ottoman history that foregrounds the salience of religious and identity politics. Another consequence of this approach has been the tendency to ignore the empire’s Muslim populations, or to analyze Ottoman relations with Muslim colonial subjects 1. For noteworthy titles on Ottoman international legal institutions, see Aimee M. Genell’s dissertation and forthcoming book project, “Empire by Law: Ottoman Sovereignty and the BritLVK 2FFXSDWLRQRI(J\SW±´ 3K'GLVV&ROXPELD8QLYHUVLW\ 7XUDQ.D\DR÷lu , Legal Imperialism: Sovereignty and Extraterritoriality in Japan, the Ottoman Empire, and China (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010); Umut Özsu, “Ottoman Empire,” in The Oxford Handbook of the History of...

The ‘Erasmus Generation’ and Turkey: The Effect of the Erasmus Programme on Perceptions about Turkey and its EU Membership Bid

The main research question of this study is how participation to Erasmus programme influences European students’ perceptions of Turkey and its EU membership bid. The study evaluates the Erasmus programme’s influence on student identities, particularly their European identity, and their perceptions about the compatibility of European and Turkish identity by analysing the responses of incoming Erasmus students at Bahcesehir University (Istanbul) in Turkey to open-ended questionnaire surveys conducted at the beginning and end of the semesters between 2009 and 2011 to investigate the extent that the Erasmus programme can influence the perceptions of these students about Turkey. In addition, semi-structured in-depth interviews, conducted by the author with incoming Erasmus students at Bahcesehir University at the end of the semesters between 2012 and 2014, were analysed qualitatively to evaluate the Erasmus programme’s influence on the perceptions of these students about Turkey, Turkey’s EU membership bid, their perceptions of the compatibility of European identity and Turkish identity and the role of the Erasmus experience in constructing a European identity in the young generation.

Turkey and the Europe of football

ABSTRACTThis article examines the parallels between the trajectory of international sporting contacts of Turkish football, at both national and club levels, and Turkish foreign and diplomatic policy since the 1920s. This convergence of international football and foreign policy is particularly true for the 1930s and the 1950s. During the 1930s, although the ruling elite was not fond of football as a spectator sport, its potential for international recognition and as a tool for diplomacy was not ignored. Turkey's rivals on the pitch were mainly countries from the Eastern Bloc, e.g. a series of friendly matches against the USSR, which was suffering from a lack of international experience due to the footballing ‘embargo’ imposed by the West. In contrast, the years following the Second World War saw Turkey's efforts to keep the USSR and other communist states at bay both politically and culturally. In the post-war international conjuncture, Turkey preferred to build up closer relations with the West and gave western European teams priority in its footballing contacts. Finally, Turkey's bid for membership of UEFA – a tortuous tale involving individual influence, FIFA and the ‘Europe–Asia question’ of Turkish identity – was also in line with Turkey's changed foreign policy strategy and priorities.

Turkey's membership bid to the European Union

This paper presents a brief overview of the EU accession process and Turkey's path to EU membership. The aim of the study is to provide a status report on Turkey's accession negotiations. The researcher here asks some questions to shed light on this case, which is still pending. We have looked into the significant reasons for Turkey to seek joining the European Union, the causes of the repeated refusal of the European Union, the internal Turkish reaction, the external alternatives that the Turkish side has resorted to and the future of Turkey's EU membership bid.

Nazi Germany, Canadian Responses: Confronting Antisemitism in the Shadow of War, edited by L. Ruth Klein (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2012), xxiii + 302 pp., illus., hardcover $29.95, electronic version available

In Toronto in June 2009 the Government of Canada and the League for Human Rights of B'nai Brith Canada co-hosted a conference entitled, “The St. Louis Era: Looking Back, Moving Forward,” which was also part of Canada's successful bid for membership in the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research, now the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Though the ill-fated voyage of the MS St. Louis served as the focal point for the conference, participants were encouraged to “look more widely at this era of prejudice and restrictive immigration policies” (p. xiii). The conference resulted in two things in addition to IHRA membership: establishment of the National Task Force on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (NTF); and publication of the volume under review. The purpose of Klein's compilation is to gain “a better sense of how much Canadians knew, and when, about the mounting persecution of the Jews.” To achieve this, Klein asserts, it is necessary to enter the “atmosphere” of Canada in this period (p. xix). In this pursuit, seven scholars from various disciplines, including history, media studies, and Jewish studies, examine various aspects of Canadian society from 1933 to 1945, concluding that most non-Jewish Canadians were apathetic in the face of Nazi persecution of Jews. It is unfortunate that the analysis focuses almost exclusively on the cities of Toronto and Montreal, and that French Canada is virtually ignored, yet no single volume can cover all aspects of a subject. In this case it seems that geographic and ethnic breadth was sacrificed in favor of multi-disciplinary inclusion.

Threat, Victimhood, and Peace: Debating the 2011 Palestinian UN State Membership Bid

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been described as one of the most intractable in the world. This article firstly provides an overview of the socio-political events that led up to the Palestinian UN state membership bid in September 2011, and secondly as a case study, it examines how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was constructed in speeches delivered by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the state membership bid to the UN General Assembly in September 2011. Despite their opposing agendas, there are some significant discursive similarities in the two speeches. The most salient shared discourses concern that of ingroup victimhood, on the one hand, and that of outgroup threat, on the other. It is argued that the speeches unwittingly dispel support for intergroup reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians by aggravating grievances on both sides and accentuating intergroup suspicion. This article highlights the importance of examining political speeches in order to better understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Kurdish movement’s EU policy in Turkey: An analysis of a dissident ethnic bloc’s foreign policy

This study aims to address a historical paradox: how can we understand the Kurdish movement’s EU policy in the two decades subsequent to the end of the Cold War? I argue that the Kurdish movement has pursued two different approaches towards the EU (or Turkey’s EU membership bid) in the last two decades. While the Kurdish movement adopted a pro-EU stance from the beginning of the 1990s until 2005, it situated itself in an in-between position towards the EU after that year. In the analysis of these two different periods, I will interrogate the role of the international system, the domestic setting, identity/difference and the relations of power in the Kurdish movement’s EU policy .

Let's talk Turkey! US influence on EU–Turkey relations

Turkey is of paramount importance to the United States and to the European Union. The United States is not only the first and foremost partner of both the EU and Turkey. It is also amongst the most committed supporters of Turkey's European integration. In support of Turkey's EU membership bid, Washington has set forth a variety of arguments and has attempted to influence EU decisions at different points in time. US advocacy throughout the 1990s was key to kick-starting Turkey's accession process. By contrast, US influence on Turkey's EU accession decreased visibly in the twenty-first century. The style of US advocacy goes some way towards explaining why this has been the case. When American advocacy has prioritized quiet, behind-closed-doors diplomacy it has tended to be more effective. When instead US officials have relied on loud public diplomacy, European reactions have been generally negative. More importantly however, it is the content of American arguments that has affected their relative impact on European perceptions of Turkey. Depending on whether the US has spoken to the rights-, the interest- or the identity-based logic of enlargement, the influence of the United States on Turkey's EU membership prospects has varied. On the grounds of this analysis, this article concludes by outlining broad policy suggestions regarding how the United States could contribute more effectively to Turkey's European integration.

Contrasting India and China as Aid Donors: A Political Economy Analysis

This study examines the rise of India and China as aid donors in the context of the global discourse on international development assistance. Their initiatives are compared in terms of their histories, institutions, instruments and motivations. Though the two countries share parallels in their stress on ‘mutual benefit’ and forgoing conditionalities, it is argued that commercial interests are much better articulated in China’s aid program. Whereas for India, garnering support for its UNSC permanent membership bid and maintaining regional pre-eminence seem more important goals. Concerns regarding the rise of non-DAC (Development Assistance Committee) lending are also critically examined and found unsubstantiated given the available evidence.

StateTube: Anthropological Reflections on Social Media and the Israeli State

Computers and keyboards are the weapons-Facebook and Twitter are the battlefields. It is there that we fight, each and every day. -Israel Defense Forces spokesman, New Media Division pages...have as much impact as a tank-and sometimes even more. -Israeli Member of Parliament, Danny Danon (Likud) Consider, as a point of departure, a set of images that went viral on Israeli social networks October of 2011. Their occasion was the release of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, held for five years by Hamas and freed exchange for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners Israeli custody. 1 Popular Israeli criticism quickly mounted about the ways Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had mobilized Shalit's release for electoral gain. Some Israelis voiced their disapproval the language of the meme-that is, an image, video, or phrase that circulates virally between social media users in the form of parody, pastiche, mashup, or other derivative work (Shifman 2011). The basis of this pastiche was a photograph issued by the Israeli government on the event of Shalit's release, picturing Shalit embracing his father against the background of the smiling Prime Minister (see Figure 1). Only Netanyahu's smile remained intact the photoshopped memes that ensued, while the remaining image was playfully altered accordance with the authorial vision of its remixer. Bibibombing, as this widespread practice was named (playing alliteratively with the Prime Minister's nick-name), flooded Israeli social networks, and Flickr particular. The range of remakes was wide: from key moments Israeli history to iconic popular cultural events and images (looking on at the wedding of William and Kate, joining the cast of The Matrix, etc.), all overlaid with Netanyahu's cheshire smile (see Figures 2-4). This meme culture generated little surprise among Israeli social media users. Yet the involvement of the Prime Minister's office these viral circuits precipitated considerably more commentary. As Israeli newspapers noted, Netanyahu had post[ed] his own 'Bibi-bomb' on Facebook within days of the meme's inception-a photoshopped image of the now iconic smile against the background of Netanyahu's recent United Nations address during the controversial Palestinian membership bid. American Jewish bloggers praised the effort as a welcomed shiftfrom the dour and humorless tenor of the PM's office, as a refreshing refusal of the premise that social networking was conduct unbecoming of a head of state.2 A similar buzz was generated March of 2011, when Netanyahu became the third world leader to appear on YouTube's live interview format, World View (see Figure 5). The user response was substantial, as thousands of viewers from over 90 countries posted video and text questions and Netanyahu responded his well-honed American English and flair for conversational address.3 The substance of his comments was nothing new, including his standard defense of settlement building and celebration of Israel's multicultural democracy. YouTube, however, constituted the difference-that is, the ways this social media platform altered the structure and performance of his address. Joining Netanyahu his Jerusalem living room where the event was staged were both the interviewer and a large computer screen on which video questions from YouTube viewers were screened. Most conformed to the platform's protocols for amateur video production, including poor lighting and shaking cameras. Netanyahu responded kind, often speaking directly to the screen as he employed the exaggerated informality that is social media's hallmark. The event was hailed as a success by members of the prime minister's staffwho praised the Prime Minister's ability to address the international Internet public without filters (Ha'aretz 2011). Within the broader context of Israeli state practices where new media are concerned, these two incidents are by no means anomalous. …

Letter from the UN: The Palestinian Bid for Membership

The Palestinian Authority's application to become a full member state at the United Nations represents the latest stage in its "alternative peace strategy" born of the collapse of the U.S.-sponsored Oslo peace process. But-argues the author-the new strategy remains overly dependent on diplomacy and uncertain Palestinian allies like the European Union. If it is to achieve a balance of power for future negotiations more favorable to the Palestinians, however, it will need to be anchored in a greater national consensus at home and in the diaspora, and allied more closely to the emerging democratic forces in the region.

Why Does Turkey Seek European Union Membership? A Historical Institutional Approach

Notwithstanding the troubled past and uncertain future of its relations with the European Union (EU), Turkey persists in its bid for membership in the EU. What accounts for Turkey’s continuing pursuit of EU membership? We argue that the historical and institutional trend of modernization has locked Turkey into a pattern of domestic and foreign policies which is difficult, if not impossible, for current policymakers to break or reverse. As part of its modernization process, Turkey chose to follow a Western‐oriented foreign policy, which became entrenched during the Cold War era with increasing returns or positive feedback from its overall engagement with the West and Europe in particular. Hence, the policy choices of Turkish policymakers about the EU are constrained by historical and institutional factors.

De Gaulle's Race to the Bottom: The Netherlands, France and the Interwoven Problems of British EEC Membership and European Political Union, 1958–1963

AbstractWhy did de Gaulle veto the United Kingdom's accession to the European Economic Community in 1963? This article addresses the interlinked struggles over British accession and European political union in the early 1960s. The focus is on the crucially conflicting relations between de Gaulle and the Netherlands, his main opponent on both issues. Who won the Franco-Dutch battle and why? This article assesses these questions on the basis of new multi-archival material and highlights a hitherto largely unnoticed rhetorical battle, which explains the course of events and reveals a previously largely unnoticed logic behind de Gaulle's manoeuvring in the intertwined negotiations over European political union, the Common Agricultural Policy and the UK membership bid.

'A Crisis of Affluence': the Politics of an Economic Breakdown in Iceland

This article deals with the collapse of the Icelandic banking system in 2008 and its impact on society, politics and foreign relations. It approaches the crisis from the perspectives of the politics of memory, transnational discourses on 'weak states' and the destabilisation of fixed foreign and security policy identities. It discusses how transitional justice has become a vehicle for addressing issues of responsibility and culpability for the crash. It also shows how Iceland, while facing a 'crisis of affluence', has coped with going through the experience of a 'Third World' country dependent on a bailout from the International Monetary Fund. These political, moralistic, legal and economic processes together with a protracted dispute with Britain and the Netherlands over the so-called Icesave issue have generated a nationalistic backlash against Iceland's EU membership bid, contributed to political and economic uncertainty and underscored a lack of strategic direction in foreign policy.

'A Crisis of Affluence': the Politics of an Economic Breakdown in Iceland

This article deals with the collapse of the Icelandic banking system in 2008 and its impact on society, politics and foreign relations. It approaches the crisis from the perspectives of the politics of memory, transnational discourses on 'weak states' and the destabilisation of fixed foreign and security policy identities. It discusses how transitional justice has become a vehicle for addressing issues of responsibility and culpability for the crash. It also shows how Iceland, while facing a 'crisis of affluence', has coped with going through the experience of a Third World' country dependent on a bailout from the International Monetary Fund. These political, moralistic, legal and economic processes—together with a protracted dispute with Britain and the Netherlands over the so-called Icesave issue—have generated a nationalistic backlash against Iceland's EU membership bid, contributed to political and economic uncertainty and underscored a lack of strategic direction in foreign policy.

Social Identity Theory and EU Expansion

In this article, I build a theory of European Union (EU) expansion using Social Identity Theory. The theory proposes that the development of a national identity in relation to Europe is the most significant contributing factor to a policy to support/oppose expanding the EU to include applicant countries. According to the theory, strength of identity—whether more national or European—is the key variable in explaining the policy toward applicant countries. As a preliminary exploration of the theory, I look at why some decision-makers within EU countries support Turkey's accession while others do not. The identities among top decision-makers within Britain, Germany, and France are used to examine the policy preferences regarding Turkey's bid for membership into the EU during these three recent progressions: the recognition of Turkey as a candidate country in 1999, the development of a timeline for full membership in 2002, and the beginning of accession negotiations in 2005.

Entrapped again: The way to EU membership negotiations with Turkey

The membership of Turkey is one of the most controversial external relations issues of the European Union (EU). In a comparison of four instances of decision-making on accession negotiations with Turkey between 1997 and 2006, this paper explains why and under which conditions Turkey has progressed on the way to EU membership in spite of persistent and increasing divergence of membership preferences. In line with the entrapment hypothesis of normative institutionalism, the analysis shows that Turkey and its supporters within the EU have been able to overcome the opposition to its membership bid to the extent that Turkey followed the fundamental norms of the EU.

Harold Wilson's EEC Application: Inside the Foreign Office, 1964-7

The story of how Harold Wilson came to submit Britain's second application to join the EEC is a curious one. The Labour Prime Minister had been a vociferous opponent of Harold Macmillan's attempt to ‘join Europe’ earlier in the decade and spent much of his first years in power seemingly pursuing alternative policy options, most notably a doomed attempt to revitalise the Commonwealth. But at some point in 1966—most probably in the wake of the disastrous July sterling crisis—Wilson seems to have decided that the UK should seek once more to gain admittance to the European Community and turned his formidable party-management skills to the task of persuading a deeply divided Labour government to endorse a second bid for membership. A formal application was submitted in May 1967—only promptly to share the fate of the earlier Macmillan attempt and to be rebuffed by General de Gaulle. This time it would take the French President two press conferences rather than one to persuade the British that France would not permit the enlargement of the EEC: the ‘velvet veto’ of May needed to be followed up by the rather more clear-cut veto of November 1967. But the net effect was to confirm what many observers had suspected all along, namely that Britain's road to EEC membership would be firmly barred until President de Gaulle left office. It would not be until after the General's resignation in 1969 that the second application was revived, and membership negotiations did not begin until after Wilson had lost the General Election in June 1970. Thus, Edward Heath and not Harold Wilson was the British Prime Minister to append his signature to the Treaty of Accession which brought the UK into the EEC.

Benvenuto Cellini’s Bid for Membership in the Florentine Confraternity of San Giovanni Battista detta dello Scalzo

An unpublished notice in the records of the confraternity of San Giovanni Battista detta dello Scalzo reveals that Benvenuto Cellini initiated a bid for membership in the company in 1557. Although Cellini seems an unlikely confratello, membership in a confraternity would have proved especially attractive to him during the difficult times he faced from 1555 to 1559. Sponsored by Roberto di Filippino Lippi, Cellini shared professional and social ties with several of the company’s members, and he may have hoped that his affiliation with the confraternity would improve his position in Florence, which had deteriorated after 1555. Cellini, beset by legal troubles and convicted a second time for sodomy in 1557, did not follow through on his initial acceptance into the organization.

The Impact of the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms on Turkey's EU Candidacy

The main purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of the European Convention on Human Rights on Turkey's bid for membership with the European Union. The main hypothesis of the present study considers the objectives of the EU and examines whether its policy regarding the issue of human rights in Turkey is, indeed, based upon the efficacy of the liberal assumption that there is a genuine link between democracy, respect for human rights and international stability. In any other case, the issue of human rights might have been manipulated as a precondition that instead of determining Turkey's status, merely delays the processing of her application while keeping her at a close distance.