Why is CHP – The main opposition party in Turkey – Giving mixed signals about EU? The domestic modernization discourse

Abstract

The basic points that I would like to raise with my thesis are primarily the ambivalent character of the Republican People’s Party in Turkey and the “deep state” by and large relevantly with the country’s EU perspective examining: i) the argumentation that they make use of, ii) the crisis that Kemalism seems to be going pass through. In my view, another crucial point that deserves our attention and may partly explain the Republican People’s Party stance and the crisis of Kemalism, is the emergence of political Islam, its affiliation with the new economic elites and together with the dynamics that this emergence brings about.