Systemic Changes and State Identity: Turkish and German Responses

Abstract: This article seeks to analyze identity discourses in Turkey and Germany in the wake of the end of the bipolar world order. The radical changes taking place in the international system in the late 1980s and early 1990s led to extensive internal debates on state identity in both countries. It is puzzling that despite heavy discussion in Ankara and Berlin, in the end, both retained the former identities they had constructed during the Cold War. Systemic changes resulted in alternative state identity narratives in both countries, without leading to any major change in the direction of foreign policy. One of the main arguments of this paper is that the main reasons behind the preservation of former identities in Turkey and Germany were the political, strategic and economic benefits that both countries had acquired during the Cold War. Another important argument is that Turkish and German state identities based on the “Western” orientation were well-established and resistant, at least, to the alternative models which were being discussed in the post-Cold War era.