Reflections of alliance/integration on domestic politics: traditional domestic threats of Turkey and tension between state and political elites

A delicate debate has begun in domestic politics since Turkey was accepted as a candidate country to the EU in 1999. While political elites argue that EU reforms are inevitable for democratization of the country, state elites think that those reforms may encourage domestic threats and damage the territorial integrity and secular regime. Meanwhile, the roles that are to be assigned to Turkey as a result of recent changes in U.S. Middle East policy have had serious repercussions on the Kurdish problem and political Islam. The latter are accepted as the two most important domestic threats. Consequently, these two domestic problems took on an international dimension in the last decade. In this essay, domestic threat perceptions after 1999 in Turkey will be examined, referring to relations with the U.S. and EU within the framework of alliance/integration. The impact of an alternative type of relation with the U.S. and the EU on domestic politics will be explored. Future tensions between state and political elites revolving around domestic security issues will also be assessed.