Abstract
Of all the issues faced in Turkish water management, none are as important and problematic as the issue of complying with European Union (EU) accession criteria. Not only is water socially, economically and environmentally important; its management is a useful prism through which to view the accession process as a whole. It showcases the complementarities and divergences between Turkish and EU bureaucratic constructs and value systems.
The man in the street does not ordinarily trouble himself about what is “real” to him about what he “knows” unless he is stopped short by some sort of problem. He takes his “reality” and his “knowledge” for granted…
…The philosopher, on the other hand, is professionally obligated to take nothing for granted, and to obtain maximal clarity as to the ultimate status of what the man in the street believes to be “reality” and “knowledge”.
Berger and Luckmann (1967, p. 2), The Social Construction of Reality
‘State regimen is decayed from A to Z; it needs to be renewed’
Refik Saydam, 4th Prime Minister of Turkey (1939–1942)
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- 1.
Regarding the deep roots of this relationship See: Deringil (2007). He describes Ottoman-Europe relations perfectly by saying: In Ottoman Turkey’s relations with Europe, therefore, we find the strange combination of a sense of being inevitably yoked together co-existing with a feeling of rejection. The feeling on both sides has been a sense of being inextricably bound together, even if this situation was not to the taste of either party. The whole Turkish relationship with Europe therefore is evaluated in terms of ‘winning’ and ‘losing’: to win is to achieve recognition; to lose is fail to do so. In this attitude we can discern two strands, one a feeling of being spurned, rejected, a feeling that reflects hurt pride, the other a feeling of wanting to belong which is made all the more acute by this very same rejection.
- 2.
Kubicek (2004) refers to an opinion piece that Cuneyt Ulsever, a Turkish journalist, wrote regarding this learnt-by-heart behavior: One Turkish commentator summed the situation neatly, arguing in 2000 that Turks are following the dictates of the EU like students doing their homework only because the teacher told them to do so, not because they recognize the intrinsic value of the work itself. Indeed, the fact that in 2001 thirty-four constitutional amendments were pushed through so quickly and with so little debate may lead to one worry that the Turks are simply ticking off the boxes and doing little to internalize the norms or put real domestic authorship behind them.
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Oktem, O. (2016). Introduction. In: Water Politics and Political Culture. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21479-5_1
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