Europeanization of civil society in Turkey: legacy of the #Occupygezi movement

Abstract

The Occupygezi movement has revealed that a more comprehensive approach needs to be taken in order to understand the deep socio-political drives underpinning the Turkish bid for EU membership. Focusing on three different framings, namely Euro-enthusiastic, Euro-skeptic and critical Europeanist frames, developed by the civil society organizations in Turkey since the 1999 Helsinki Summit of the European Union, this article will show the transformative effect of the Occupygezi movement on the mindsets of secular groups, who were previously Euro-skeptic. Subsequently, the article will claim that the last frame is recently becoming stronger along with the authoritarianization of the Turkish state. Methodologically, the paper will be based on the literature survey of civil society actors, and discourse analysis of the civil society actors (associations, trade unions, and the media) in relation to their changing perception of the EU before and after the Occupygezi movement.