Türkiye-AB ilişkilerinde yeni bir uzamsal-zamansal dönemeç: Çözüm bekleyen Kıbrıs sorunu

Year 2024, Volume: 51 Issue: 2, 211 - 232, 27.12.2024

Neyyire Nilgün Öner Tangör , Osman Galip Yalman

Abstract

Türkiye-AB ilişkilerinin zamansallığı ve Kıbrıs sorununun içinde bulunduğu “siyasi ve hukuki durum”, Türkiye’nin 1990’ların sonundan beri karşı çıktığı "bağlantı/ilişkilendirme siyaseti” kavramının özünü yansıtmaktadır. 2024 yılı, "Kıbrıs Sorununun Avrupalılaşması" olarak adlandırdığımız sürecin 30. Yıldönümüydü: Kıbrıs Cumhuriyeti, 1994 Korfu Zirvesi'nde AB'nin genişleme sürecine Kıbrıslı Türkler ve Kıbrıslı Rumlar arasında uzun süredir devam eden çatışmaya bir çözüm bulunmadan dahil edildi. Kıbrıs Cumhuriyeti, 1 Mayıs 2004 tarihinde bölünmüş bir ada olarak AB üyesi bir devlet haline gelmiş dolayısıyla Kıbrıs Rum Kesimi, Kıbrıslı Türkleri temsil etme hakkına sahip olmamasına rağmen, her iki toplum adına tüm adanın tek temsilcisi olarak kabul edilmiştir. Adadaki mevcut siyasi çıkmaz ve Türkiye ile AB arasında yapıcı diyalog eksikliği, Türkiye'nin olası AB üyeliği ile Kıbrıs sorununun çözümü arasındaki bağlantıyı ortaya çıkarmış oldu. Bu bağlamda Türkiye-AB ilişkilerinin gidişatı, Kıbrıs sorununun Güneydoğu Akdeniz'de gelişen hidrokarbon ekonomisi ile birleşmesiyle beraber ortaya çıkan jeopolitik çekişme gündemiyle yeni bir zamansallık boyutu kazandı. Her ne kadar hidrokarbon gündeminin yükselişi ve düşüşü ile birlikte Kıbrıs sorununa yeni bir politik ekonomi boyutu eklenmiş olsa da tüm süreç "plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose" şeklinde özetlenebilir.

Keywords

Kıbrıs sorunu, zamansallık, Avrupalılaşma, karbonlaşma, bağlantı/ilişkilendirme siyaseti.

Yet another spatio-temporal turn in the Turkey-EU relations: The continuing saga of the “Cyprus problem”

Abstract

The temporality of the Turkey-EU relations, coupled with the “state of affairs” of the Cyprus problem, reflected the “linkage politics” as initially opposed by Turkey. 2024 was the 30th anniversary of the so-called “Europeanisation of the Cyprus Problem” when the Republic of Cyprus (RoC) was included in the EU enlargement process in the 1994 Corfu Summit without the resolution of the problem. Cyprus became an EU member state as a divided island on May 1st 2004 whilst RoC was considered as the sole representative of the island on behalf of both the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot communities despite the lack of the latter’s representation. The current political stalemate on the island and the lack of a constructive dialogue between Turkey and EU unveiled the linkage between Turkey’s prospective EU membership and the solution of the Cyprus problem. In this regard, the trajectory of the Turkey-EU relations evolved into a new temporality under geopolitical contestation in which Cyprus conflict is coupled by the hydrocarbon economy developing in the Southeastern Mediterranean. Although a new political economy dimension has been added with the rise and fall of the hydrocarbon agenda, the whole process can be best summed as “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”.

Keywords

Cyprus problem, temporality, Europeanisation, carbonization, linkage politics

References

• ARISAN, N. and ERALP, A. (2016), “Critical Juncture in Cyprus Negotiations”, Paper prepared for the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), May 2016.
• ARRIGHI, G. (2003), “Spatial and Other “Fixes” of Historical Capitalism.”. Paper presented at the Conference on Globalization in the World-System: Mapping Change over Time. University of California, Riverside, February 7-8, 2003. https://irows.ucr.edu/conferences/globgis/papers/Arrighi.htm. Retrieved on Sept. 25 2024.
• BALKIR, C. L. and YALMAN, G. (2009), “Economics and Politicization of the Civil Society: The Turkish-Cypriot Case”, in Diez, T. & Tocci, N. (eds.) Cyprus: A Conflict at the Crossroads, Manchester University Press.
• BEDİRHANOĞLU, P. and YALMAN, G. L. (2010), “State, Class and Discourse: Reflections on the Neoliberal Transformation in Turkey”, in A. Saad-Filho & G. Yalman (eds.) Economic Transitions to Neoliberalism in Middle Income Countries, London, Routledge.
• REINERMANN, D. (2017), “On the Economic Impacts of Reunification in Cyprus”, World Bank Opinion, June 23, https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/opinion/2017/06/23/qa-analysis-of-economic-impacts-of-reunification-in-cyprus. Retrieved on 19.08.2024.
• DROUSIOTIS, M. (2020), “The Cyprus issue was resolved in Crans-Montana, but the public was never told.” Cyprus Mail February 9, 2020, https://archive.cyprus-mail.com/2020/02/09/anastasiades-got-his-way-in-crans-montana/. Retrieved on 19.08.2024
• ERALP, A. (ed. 1997), Türkiye ve Avrupa, Ankara: İmge.
• ERALP, A. (2000), “Turkey in the Enlargement Process: From Luxembourg to Helsinki”. Perceptions, V (June-August 2000), 1–9.
• ERALP, A. (2009), “Temporality, Cyprus Problem and Turkey-EU Relations”, Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies, Discussion Paper Series - 2009/02.
• ERALP, A. (2010), "The Last Chance in Cyprus Negotiations and the Turkey-EU Relationship". ELIAMEP Thesis Feb. 2010 1/2010.
• FAUSTMANN, H. (2015), “Hydrocarbons Can Fuel a Settlement” in J. Ker-Lindsay (Ed.), Resolving Cyprus. New Approaches to Conflict Resolution (pp. 74-82). I.B. Tauris.
• FAUSTMANN, H., GÜREL A. and Reichberg G. M. (eds. 2012), “Cyprus Offshore Hydrocarbons: Regional Politics and Wealth Distribution.” PRIO Cyprus Centre Report: 1. Nicosia: PRIO Cyprus Centre.
• FILIPPINI, M. (2017), Using Gramsci, Pluto Press, London.
• FLENLEY, P. and MANNIN, M. (2018), Introduction. In P. Flenley & M. Mannin (Eds.), The European Union and its eastern neighbourhood: Europeanisation and its twenty-first-century contradictions (pp. 1–6). Manchester University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv18b5nv3.8.
• GRIGORIADIS, I. N. (2017), “Cyprus negotiations thwarted by issues on security and guarantees: how can the peace process be revived?”, https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-55016-9, SWP Comment, Social Science Open Access Repository (SSOAR), 28/2017, ISSN 1861-1761.
• GÜREL, A., MULLEN F. and TZIMITRAS, H. (2013), “The Cyprus Hydrocarbons Issue: Context, Positions and Future Scenarios”, PRIO Report: 1. Nicosia: PRIO Cyprus Centre.
• HARVEY, D. (2003), The New Imperialism, Oxford University Press.
• IORDANIDOU, S. and ATHANASSIOS, S. (2014), “Financial crisis in the Cyprus Republic”, Javnost - The Public, no.4· December, 63-76.
• JESSOP, B. (2014), “Political Capitalism, Economic and Political Crises, and Authoritarian Statism”, Spectrum Journal of Global Studies, Vol.7, Issue 1.
• KER-LINDSAY, J. (2007), “The European Union as a Catalyst for Conflict Resolution: Lessons from Cyprus on the Limits of Conditionality”. Helen Bamber Centre for the Study of Rights and Conflict, WORKING PAPER SERIES No. 1. https://eprints.kingston.ac.uk/id/eprint/5596/1/Ker-Lindsay-J-5596.pdf. Retrieved on 19 Sept. 2024.
• KYRIS, G. (2013), “Europeanisation and Conflict Resolution: The Case of Cyprus”, IBEI Working Paper, 2013/39.
• KYRIS, G. (2015), The Europeanisation of Contested Statehood: The EU in Northern Cyprus. Routledge.
• LEFTERATOS, A. (2024) “The Unintended Consequences of the EU’s Engagement in Contested States: the Case of Cyprus”, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, DOI: 10.1080/14683857.2024.2324555.
• ÖNER TANGÖR, N. N. (2021), Statehood Struggle Within the Context of a Protracted Conflict; Political Economy of the Turkish Cypriot Case. PhD. Thesis, Middle East Technical University.
• RADAELLI, C. (2004), “Europeanisation: Solution or Problem?” European Integration online Papers (EIoP). 8.
• RICHMOND, O. P. (2001), “A perilous catalyst? EU accession and the Cyprus problem”, Cyprus Review, 13(2), 127-131.
• SARRIS, M. (2015), “Foreword” in Theodore & Theodore (2015) Cyprus and the Financial Crisis: The Controversial Bailout and What It Means for the Eurozone, Palgrave Macmillan.
• SCHMIDT, V. A. and RADAELLI, C. M. (2004), “Policy change and discourse in Europe: Conceptual and methodological issues”. West European Politics, 27(2), 183-210.
• TOCCI, N. (2004a), EU Accession Dynamics and Conflict Resolution: Catalysing peace or consolidating partition in Cyprus? Aldershot, Ashgate, 2004.
• TOCCI, N. (2004b), “Conflict Resolution in the European Neighbourhood: The Role of the EU as a Framework and as an Actor”, EUI Working Paper RSCAS No. 2004/29.
• TRIMIKLINIOTIS, N. (2013), “Cyprus: Is the Eurocrisis the Beginning of the End of the Eurozone?”, Descrier. https://descrier.co.uk/news/world/cyprus-is-the-eurocrisis-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-eurozone/. Retrieved on 25 Sept. 2024
• YALMAN, G. L. (2016a), “Crises as Driving Forces of Neoliberal ‘Trasformismo’: The Contours of the Turkish Political Economy since the 2000s” in Alan Cafruny et al. (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Critical International Political Economy, Palgrave-Macmillan.
• YALMAN, G. L. (2016b), “Cyprus ‘Conflict’: Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose”, Kaya, A. Y, Sabuktay, A, &. Kaya, D.A. (eds.) History, Culture and Politics in the Mediterranean, Symposium Papers, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Mediterranean Academy, 128-138.
• YALMAN, G. L. and GÖKSEL, A. (2017), “Transforming Turkey? Putting the Turkey-European Union Relations into a Historical Perspective”, Uluslararası İlişkiler Dergisi, 14(56), 23-37.
• YIANGOU, G. S. (2002), “The accession of Cyprus to the EU: challenges and opportunities for the new European regional order”, JEMIE - Journal on ethnopolitics and minority issues in Europe, 2, 1-13. https://nbn-resolving.org/ urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-62147.
• ZERVAKIS, P. A. (2002), “The Europeanisation of the Cyprus Question. A Model for Conflict Resolution?” Politička misao, Vol. XXXIX, No. 5, pp. 156–173.