Turkish-greek Relations: Rapprochement, Civil Society And The Politics Of Friendship (routledge Advances In Mediterranean Studies)

Turkish-Greek relations are marked by a long trajectory of enmity and tension. This book sets out to explore the 'other side' of that history, focusing on initiatives that have promoted contact between the two societies and encouraged rapprochement. Presenting a new critical re-description of Turkish-Greek rapprochement processes over a lengthy time span (1974-2013), Turkish-Greek Relations offers innovative explanations for the emergence of the reconciliation movement. Instead of lineal continuities, the book explores different routes that these efforts for rapprochement have followed, reflected in the divergent visions for a 'Turkish-Greek friendship' pursued by actors as distinct as radical leftists, civil society activists, local government representatives, artists and liberal intellectuals, as well as journalists, politicians and businessmen. Drawing on political discourse theory and social anthropology, this book employs extensive archival research into Turkish and Greek sources, significant numbers of interviews with pioneers of the rapprochement movement, and an original ethnographic study, to examine the competing claims for 'Greek-Turkish friendship'. In doing so, it is possible to assess their successes and failures, prospects and predicaments. A valuable addition to existing literature, this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of International Relations, Peace and Reconciliation Studies, and Politics Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents List of illustrations Preface: on repetition Acknowledgements Acronyms and abbreviations Introduction: 'Turkish–Greek friendship' reiterated Friendship as a 'proper name'? From warm rhetoric to cold labels '1974' between tragedy and victory: enmity reactivated Re-emerging friendship: a 'floating' signifier Discourse as a bridge between language, practice and affect 'Turkish–Greek friendship' revisited: from fragments to structures Sites, archives and interlocutors Notes Part I: Spectres of the 'Left' 1. Comrades, democrats, friends ... shared spectres Traces, signifiers, spectres A spectre over a generation: 'whither the Left?' A spectre haunting a spectre: The 'Left' over 'friendship' The spectre as uncanny: the past haunting the present Sharing spectres: a 'generation' of the Greek and the Turkish Left 'Dangerous' democrats, 'illegal' leftists 'Friendship': linking political and affective grammars Personal and discursive articulations An audible spectre? Names and generations of skulls or spirits Notes 2. Radicalising rapprochement: 'friendship' through struggles Emerging figures: the Turkish democrat The subject of friendship: beyond comradeship and hospitality Friendship through struggles Fading friendships, emerging challenges Notes 3. Frontiers in différance: political and spatial proximities on the Aegean coast Proximity contested Dikili and Mytilene: a meeting of a 'generation Frontiers in différance: de-politicisation and re-politicisation De-politicising the 'political': between Schmitt and Derrida De-politicising the national, politicising the local Frontiers in dispersion The environmental movement Town twinning: Chios and Çeşme Towards the fading of a spectre: remainders after the Imia/Kardak crisis Coda Notes 4. An uncanny spectre? Haunting friendship(s), haunting responsibilities The spectre as a ghost: the Left in the face of new challenges The Turkish coast's specificities: remnants of 'friendship' The Greek Left after 1999 The Greek 'red apple' The apparition of the ghost The spectre as a 'trace' In the form of an epilogue: questions of responsibility and the double Spectre Spectres revisited Notes Part II: Towards a 'civil society' of friendship? 5. Aspect dawning, cultural extimacy and the (anti)politics of friendship Dawning aspects: the affective grammars of an enmity–friendship pendulum Aspect dawning as a paradox: unsettling old grammars Diffusing the new aspect From affects to discourse: a cultural extimacy 'Friendship' as an anti-political translation Anti-political as post-political: friendship through national unity Friendship through 'national reconciliation' Icons and idols of 'friendship': representing the 'people' Friendship(s) as parallel monologues? Notes 6. 'Friendship' as an empty signifier: (e)merging political grammars Merging grammars: friendship as a tendentially empty signifier Emerging grammars: new discourses, old (and new) actors Internationalising Greek–Turkish rapprochement: a European 'civil society' 'Civil society' and the discourses of peace and conflict resolution The emerging of 'common interests' The end of friendship? Notes 7. A 'civil society' of friendship: between excitement and boredom The return of 'friendship' 'Friendship' as a popular label of civil society Friendship and 'civil society': a parallel discursive explosion Blended grammars and hegemony: affective and effective NGOs, Europe and funding Friendship associations Town twinning Between excitement and boredom Coda: Turkish–Greek friendship ... again? Spectres ... again Notes Appendix: concise information on rapprochement initiatives Phonetic guidelines Bibliography Index This book presents a new critical re-description of Turkish-Greek rapprochement processes over a lengthy time span (1974-2010), offering innovative explanations for the emergence of the reconciliation movement, examining its successes and failures, prospects and predicaments.