The Politics of Permanent Crisis: Class, Ideology and State in Turkey

After a long eclipse that lasted for the good part of the twentieth century, Turkey is once again coming into the limelight of world politics. Not long ago, Turkey was an obscure country for the international audience, moving to the front stage only on the rare occasions when it became the center of an international crisis. The world knew more about the past of this country than its present. All of this has changed since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Another factor pushing Turkey into the international spotlight is the candidature of Turkey for accession to the European Union. After many years of prevarication, the European Union granted Turkey the status of candidate for accession at the Helsinki summit of December 1999. The eventual accession of Turkey to membership, having the position of being the only country in the Moslem or Turkic worlds with a chance of becoming a part, be it in the distant future, of this club of the rich, magnifies the stature of the country in the eyes of its near and far neighbors in the Middle East or Central Asia.