Hansen/Curtis, 1/e, Ch



World History in Today's World: Turkey and the European Union

This activity corresponds to the "World History in Today's World: Turkey and the European Union" feature in your textbook. Once you have answered the Comprehension questions, submit your answers and move on to the subsequent questions included in the Analysis and Outside Sources sections. Each section is designed to build upon the one before it, taking you progressively deeper into the subject you are studying. After you have answered all of the questions, you will have the option of emailing your responses to your instructor.

Introduction

Turkey's campaign to join the European Union is only the latest of a long series of efforts to bring Turkish society closer to Europe. Under the Ottoman Empire from its beginnings through the seventeenth century, that effort took the form of outright conquest. Under the later empire, it took the form of attempts to borrow European economic, military, legal, political, and social practices and adapt them to Turkish needs. So far, the most successful of these attempts has been that of Mustafa Kemal, the founder of modern Turkey, about whom you will read in Chapter 28 of your textbook. More than any of his reformist predecessors, Kemal managed to recast Turkish society according to Western models. However, even Kemal's vigorous program of Westernization did not entirely erase traditional Turkish and Muslim beliefs and practices. Those traditions remained alive and recently found political expression through the Islamist Justice and Development (AK) Party, which currently controls the government. The party claims to represent a balance between Muslim faith, democracy, and human rights, but it faces many opponents, both in Turkey and Europe, who doubt that an Islamic party can advance the process of securing EU membership. Use the links and questions below to learn more about Turkey's interactions with the West.

Comprehension

1. When did Turkey formally request admission into the European Union?

2. What EU benchmark has been especially challenging form Turkey to meet?

3. What political party has overseen Turkey's reform efforts?

Analysis

1. In what ways are the EU's demands on Turkey rooted in the political and social ideologies of the nineteenth century?

2. In what ways is the opposition to Turkish membership in the EU rooted in those ideologies?

3. How do the policies, designed to secure Turkey's membership in the EU, resemble and differ from those of the Tanzimat reformers?

Outside Sources

1. The Tanzimat reformers were not the first to try to change the traditional structures of the Ottoman Empire. About 40 years before the Tanzimat campaign began, the sultan Selim III attempted a program of reforms. Read a European response to Selim's program at . What is Sir William Eton's assessment of Ottoman capabilities at that moment?

2. About 40 years after the conservative backlash against the Tanzimat reforms, the so-called Young Turks attempted yet another modernization campaign to strengthen the empire. Go to and read the Young Turks' 1980 proclamation. How do the reforms announced by the proclamation build upon and surpass the Tanzimat reforms? What European ideological influences can you detect in the proclamation?

3. Go to and read a recent article on the progress of Turkey's admittance into the EU. What step did Turkey take to satisfy EU requirements? What are some of the issues yet to be resolved?

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