Turkey: facing a new millennium. Coping with intertwined conflicts

Book abstract:

In 1999, Turkey began the process of one day joining the European Union (EU). This book reflects on the history of Turkey's political situation and foreign policy over the last decade, and in doing so retraces the process of its accession to the EU. Its author, Amikam Nachmani, an Israeli scholar, attempts to study both the internal and external aspects of the Turkish situation throughout the 1990s, a period marked by various crossroads, crucial developments and decisive events that led to the December 1999 decision. At the heart of the study is an analysis of the extent to which Turkey coped with both foreign and domestic matters during these years. The work also examines how Turkey dealt successfully with the fall of communism, the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the important issue of the Kurdish revolt, and how the country avoided becoming embroiled in the conflicts which surround these issues.

The first chapter focuses on Turkey's participation in the Gulf War, while chapter two looks at the Kurdish problem and the victory over the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). In chapter three, Nachmani turns to a discussion of Turkey's ambivalent relationship with the EU, and in particular its cultural, economic and demographic aspects. Chapter four provides an analysis of the questions of Turkish national identity, nationalism and Islam, and chapter five addresses Turkey's major international encounters with Russia central Asia and the US. Chapter six explores the always problematic Greek-Turkish relations and chapter seven investigates the newly emergent atmosphere of co-operation and trade between Turkey and Israel.