The EU–Turkey Visa Liberalisation Agreement: A Victim of Populist and Securitisation Practices?

Abstract

The negotiation process of the visa liberalisation between Turkey and the European Union came to a sudden halt in May 2016 when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that Turkey would not amend its anti-terrorism law as a precondition for the visa waiver deal. Going beyond the approach of general policy analyses, the paper draws inspiration from the postmodern or interpretive–discursive political tradition, and proposes discourse analysis, populism and securitisation theories as a theoretical background for finding an explanation to this abrupt move. As the author examines the visa liberalisation discourse in Turkey at the official level from May 2016 to April 2017, she points out how the government’s framing connects with the wider securitisation discourse of the previous years and shows what makes it extremely difficult to challenge or counter the official narrative(s).