Scholars have drawn heavily on new institutionalist approaches in the study of comparative European politics and European integration. These approaches however have been neglected in the study of Turkey-European Union (EU) relations. And although Turkey-EU relations have been widely researched, there has been little scholarly engagement with the role of Turkey's National Security Council (MGK) in shaping the country's European policy, resulting in a significant gap in the academic literature on Turkey and the EU. To fill this gap this thesis provides an historical institutionalist account of the role the MGK has played in Turkey- EU relations. There are two central and interlinked hypothesises: (1) The origins of both the MGK and Turkey's relations with Europe can be found in the years between 1923 and 1957, and the MGK's evolution, its decisions/preferences and the changes it embarked upon shaped the development, the nature and the pace of Turkey-EU relations; (2) the historical institutionalist conceptualisations of how institutions originate, in what ways they determine political actions, and the types of changes they go through can best explain the interaction between the MGK's institutional processes and Turkey-EU relations. This thesis draws upon both primary sources such as the MGK's press releases (1983-2004) and secondary sources. It shows that historical institutionalism and its associated concepts of critical junctures, path dependence and unintended consequences, and punctuated equilibrium may help to explain not only the origins of the MGK and Turkey's interest in Europe between 1923 and 1957, but also the three significant phases of Turkey's subsequent European policy: the evolution of the MGK and the development of Turkey-European Economic Community (EEC)/ European Community (EC) relations amid the Critical Junctures ofl- III (1957- 1983); the MGK's tendency to rule through states of emergency and its incompatibility with ECIEU membership criteria (1983-1997); and the curtailment of the MGK's powers and the EU's decision (0 begin access ion negotiations with Turkey (1997-2004).

This study critically analyses Turkey-Europe relations with the new conceptualisations, design, and interpretation. Specifically, dichotomous international order, asymmetric negotiations, and hermeneutical interpretation are the tools of this new investigation that are the main pillars of this thesis. The research initially reads the theoretical and historical discussions regarding the international order from the dichotomy perspective. Simply it is argued that there are two patterns of modern international order, with different and mostly contrasting objectives, and different normative and institutional arrangements. This dichotomy caused the asymmetric negotiations in Turkey-Europe relations. The study supported its theoretical assumptions with the case studies of human and minority rights, and the Cyprus problem as empirical explanations of the consistent and continuous patterns of political standards of Europe for Turkey. Hermeneutical interpretation is used as the main research approach. With a critical scrutiny of the contending texts, the historical and social dynamics seek to be identified for the interpretation of the meaning of events/ factions/behaviour from Turkey's point of view. While doing this, the cultural, political, and social forces that influenced the actor's outlook are identified. In this way, the research aims to make modest contribution to explain Turkey's international behaviour and position on certain key political issues including human and minority rights, and the Cyprus problem, and contribute to the understanding of the existing problems between Turkey and the EU.

At the end of the Cold War Turkey's external and domestic environments have been transformed beyond recognition with important implications for its foreign policy. Such alterations could not but have significant effects on Turkish foreign policy thinking, forcing the policy-makers to re-examine Turkey's role and place when confronted with the question of 'Where does Turkey fit now?' Consequently, Turkey's external relations have been debated extensively in both Turkey and abroad.

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This research seeks to understand the political, economic, geographical and cultural discussions in the British media representation of Turkey’s bid to join the European Union (EU). The idiosyncratic aspect of the topic is that both Turkey and the British media have a special relationship with the EU. Turkey is the only inveterate EU membership candidate. No country has waited at the front door of the EU as long as Turkey yet. There are different reasons behind this and they make the issue interesting to contemplate. In addition to Turkey’s different status compared to the EU membership candidacy processes of other countries, the thesis also takes into account the different and awkward relationship between the EU and the UK, and inevitably the British media. Therefore, the analytical framework of the thesis draws on the notion of ‘a positive Other’ while explaining the media representation of Turkey’s EU bid. The research also highlights the ‘essentialist’ and ‘functionalist’ approaches in its attempt to explain the differences within the EU in understanding the fundamentals of the EU and the view about Turkish membership. The research sought to explore how Turkey’s EU bid was represented in the British media by focusing on one main research question, namely, ‘How was Turkey’s EU bid represented in the British media?’ In order to answer this question in a systematic way, the study employs a triangulation of different methods. In the empirical chapters, the study first looks at the coverage of different important periods in Turkey-EU relations between 1999 and 2006. The news items published in these periods by six news organisations from the British media are analysed by using quantitative and qualitative content analysis. Secondly, the thesis presents an analysis of how the coverage was produced. The analysis is based on the semi-structured, in-depth interviews conducted with the journalists who work, or had worked, for the British media and who had published news items about Turkey-EU relations. The data gathered from the interviews are presented by employing Shoemaker and Reese’s (1996) hierarchical model. In the concluding chapter of the thesis, the findings from the research are linked to the notion of ‘a positive Other’.

Turkey-EU relations have attracted high public attention and academic curiosity as a special case that has provided a fruitful environment for a wide-ranging group of study areas. This thesis is particularly interested in the way in which AK Party and specifically Recep Tayyip Erdogan have been represented in the mainstream western media and political discourse, and how these representations have influenced specific encounters in Turkey-EU relations. The changes in the dominant representations over time have a special place in this analysis. This thesis mainly claims that, although there is no linear or causal relationship between representations and policy choices, western media and political discourse on AK Party had decisive influence in limiting possible policy options for policy makers. Positive and praising discourse on AK Party and Turkey that dominated western political landscape enabled EU leaders to open the way for membership negotiations. Similarly, negative and even demonising discourse on AK Party became the biggest obstacle for the continuation of the negotiations. This thesis claims that understanding the international social context is crucial in grasping the background of discourses and their influences on actors. Thus, it focuses on post-9/11 international social context with specific emphasis on western security discourses and the rise of Islamophobia in western societies, as crucial factors in shaping the international context during the relevant period. Turkey-EU relations is at its lowest point since the beginning of accession talks in 2005. The prospects for Turkey’s EU membership are looking bleaker than ever now, as is the representation of Erdogan and AK Party in the mainstream western media and political discourse. By using discourse analysis method, this thesis analyses the representations of AK Party in western mass media and political landscape, especially in the political turmoil during and after infamous Gezi Park incidents in Turkey that highlighted the problems in Turkey-EU relations as a negative turning point.

The research approaches Turkish membership question to the European Union as an open-ended struggle among social forces. It aims to address whether there is a hegemonic pro-membership perspective and if any, which social forces are supporting it. Is there any alternative contesting and resisting membership and neo-liberal restructuring? Can disadvantaged groups from globalisation form a united struggle, and if not, how can we account for the lack of an alternative? At the theoretical level, it dismisses mainstream integration theories as debate is mainly stuck to the dichotomy between membership or not (form of integration), that in return is a non-debate. It introduces Gramscian historical materialist framework that paves the way to account for socio-economic content and power relations underpinning ongoing integration process. The argument proceeds by delving into a debate on theoretical coordinates regarding hegemony in Gramscian analyses and the theory of discourse introduced by Laclau and Mouffe in the Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. Ultimately, it dismisses theory of discourse and conceives class struggle in relation to discipline of capital over society within social relations of production. The empirical data relies on semi-structured interviews conducted with capital and labour, political parties, state officials and women rights/feminist groups and human rights groups. Additionally, particular sectors, textile, automotive and agriculture are examined in parallel with Gramscian historical materialist coordinates on intra-class struggle. I shall argue that pro-membership perspective, whose socio-economic content is consolidation of neo-liberal restructuring, is hegemonic. It is pioneered by internationally oriented capital and conveyed as the means to stimulate competitiveness and economic growth and to consolidate democracy. It draws support from nationally oriented capital analogous with delocalization of production and integration to transnational production via outsourcing and contract manufacturing. Yet, it is possible to identify two rival class strategies that contest neo-liberal pro-membership project, neo-mercantilism that is supported by nationally oriented labour, nationalist political parties, centre-left political parties and Ha-vet (No-Yes) that is underpinned by internationally oriented labour, social democratic fraction among the Left, particular women rights groups and human rights groups. On the one hand, position of social forces underpinning neo-mercantilism is weakened in economy and ideas that echo import-substitution policy under Keynesian welfare state regime and developmentalist state in periphery are defeated analogous with globalisation and neo-liberal restructuring. The only criticism of neo-mercantilist project remains on national sensitivities. Put bluntly, the critique is anti-imperialist though not anti-capitalist. At the final analysis, membership is interpreted in relation to modernization and westernization with a populist discourse. On the other hand, although social forces within Ha-vet read European Union as a capitalist economic integration model, they conceive internationalisation of labour and European Social Model as the only viable mechanism to struggle against globalization and transnationalisation of production. Moreover, European integration is received positively as a democratization project. Ultimately, neither neo-mercantilism that supports ‘membership on equal terms and conditions’, nor Ha-vet that adopts the motto of ‘another globalisation and Europe is possible’, stands as an overall alternative.