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Article published In: Discourse analysis, policy analysis, and the borders of EU identity
Edited by Caterina Carta and Ruth Wodak
[Journal of Language and Politics 14:1] 2015
► pp. 154–174

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European parliament ‘doing’ Europe

Unravelling the right-wing culturalist discourse on Turkey’s accession to the EU

 | Istanbul Bilgi University |
Published online: 26 May 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.14.1.08ayd
This article focuses on the discourses of the main centre-right political party group (EPP-ED, EPP) in the European Parliament on Turkey’s accession to the European Union. It utilises the analytical framework of the Discourse-Historical Approach in Critical Discourse Analysis to mainly concentrate on the articulations of ‘culture’ and ‘cultural identity’ in the discussions over Turkish accession in official parliamentary debates and in-depth personal interviews with the members of this group. It is argued that a relational theorising of identity allows for analysis of the ways in which a cultural ‘Europe’ is articulated through current discussions on Turkey in the mainstream right-wing European Parliament discourse and thus reveals the cultural borders that are enacted with reference to Turkish membership within this group.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theory And The Method
    • 2.1Identity, culture and EU enlargement policy
    • 2.2Critical discourse analysis
  • 3.Analysis
    • 3.1Culture, history and geography: An ‘ontopology’ of Europe
    • 3.2‘Culturalisation’ of democracy, human rights and secularism
    • 3.3‘Culturalisation’ of migration
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
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