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Article Contesting the EU? China's Engagement With Türkiye and the Western Balkans(Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2025) Yilmaz, GozdeThe EU has been challenged as a norm exporter both internally and externally in recent years. However, studies focused on the external dimensions of this contestation, such as the rise of China, have remained limited in the literature to date. This article accordingly explores the external dimensions of EU contestation by examining the case of Chinese engagement with T & uuml;rkiye and the Western Balkan countries in the 2010s and 2020s. It is argued that despite the EU's long engagement as a norm exporter in the aforementioned countries, its hesitant approach to enlargement opened the gates to China as an alternative gravity centre for these countries. China filled the space left empty by the EU and increased its cooperation with T & uuml;rkiye and the Western Balkan countries. As a result, Chinese influence has become a reality, contesting the EU as a norm exporter in its own neighbourhood.Article Citation - WoS: 4Citation - Scopus: 9Post-Truth Politics in the 2017 Euro-Turkish Crisis(Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2019) Yilmaz, GozdeThe year 2017 constituted a period of deep crisis and mutual distrust in relations between Turkey and Europe. During the referendum campaign on a proposed change to the constitution, the Turkish government reacted harshly to European countries that prohibited politicians campaigning in their territories. The key members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi - AKP) also met the European response with enmity. A detailed analysis of the discourse of the AKP's key cadre during the 2017 crisis reveals element of a new phenomenon which is emerging in the politics of many countries: post-truth.Article Citation - WoS: 5Citation - Scopus: 7Emulating Erasmus? Turkey's Mevlana Exchange Program in Higher Education(Springer Heidelberg, 2019) Yilmaz, GozdeIn today's world, globalization and internationalization of education necessitate new initiatives to catch the new era. Turkey, as a country in between the east and the west, attempts to do so through its recent exchange program in higher education. Interestingly, Turkey's Mevlana exchange program as an ambitious project in higher education denotes an instance of policy transfer: taking the EU model (i.e., Erasmus) and slightly adjusting it to the national circumstances. This article unpacks Turkey's Mevlana program to demonstrate the process of policy transfer by focusing on different questions posed within the policy transfer literature. It argues that Mevlana is drawn from Erasmus, and it is created as a tool of soft power that is increasingly exercised by Turkey due to its changing focus within the Turkish foreign policy of 2000s.Article Citation - WoS: 35Citation - Scopus: 43Zooming Into the 'domestic in Europeanization: Promotion of Fight Against Corruption and Minority Rights in Turkey(Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2014) Yilmaz, Gozde; Soyaltin, DigdemSince the credibility of the European Union (EU) conditionality for Turkey has significantly weakened after 2005, compliance with the EU requirements has become less likely. However, we observe continuing reforms in the fight against corruption and minority rights, which is rather puzzling. Given the limited impact of the EU incentives, this paper brings back the 'domestic' into the analysis by exploring the role of various domestic actors, such as Turkish state elites, civil society and the media. Yet, as the empirical evidence suggests, policy change in the fight against corruption and minority rights has been driven by the domestic agenda of the governing party, the Justice and Development Party, and its political preferences based on strategic calculations.Article Citation - WoS: 7Citation - Scopus: 5Use/Misuse of Chinese Bri Investment? Bri-Related Crony Capitalism in Turkey(Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2023) Yildirim, Nilgun Elikucuk; Yilmaz, GozdeCrony capitalism as a type of capitalism entailing the close relations of political authorities and business circles based on mutual profit maximization is not a new phenomenon in Turkey. However, crony relations have accelerated with the Justice and Development Party (Adalet Kalkinma Partisi - AKP) rule. Despite growing scholarly work on crony relations in the AKP era, the literature remains inward-oriented without analysing the external dimension of crony capitalism, which this article intends to alleviate by providing an analysis of crony capitalism and bringing back the external dimension through an analysis of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)-related crony relations. It argues that the case of Turkey demonstrates how the BRI is used to feed instrumental cronyism without the promotion of China and how recipient countries use and misuse Chinese BRI investments to create alternative resources for the government's cronies.Article Citation - WoS: 4Citation - Scopus: 3Turkey in Between the Eu and China: From Europeanization To Cooperation With China(Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2023) Yilmaz, Gozde; Yildirim, Nilgun ElikucukTurkey has been on the path of EU membership since the 2000s, and the democratization process was well underway during the initial years of its candidacy. However, this trend was reversed substantially, with Turkey growing increasingly authoritarian during the 2010s. This substantial democratic backsliding has led to increasing authoritarian cooperation with the authoritarian powers on the rise, one of which is China, whose increasing engagement and cooperation with Turkey marked an alternative gravity centre for Turkey to be pulled by. This article argues that Turkey, in line with the worsening domestic authoritarianism, has been engaging with the authoritarian powers for survival rather than engaging with the EU, which provided legitimacy to the rule of the AKP during the initial years of its rule.Article Citation - WoS: 58Citation - Scopus: 79From Europeanization To De-Europeanization: the Europeanization Process of Turkey in 1999-2014(Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2016) Yilmaz, GozdeTurkey has been experiencing a controversial path of Europeanization by the 1999 Helsinki Summit granting EU candidate country status to the country: a changing trend from progressing Europeanization to selective Europeanization and recently de-Europeanization. Such a puzzling process, especially considering the recent de-Europeanization, is explored in this article through critically discussing the role of the EU and domestic factors. The article argues that the process has been influenced by EU conditionality in the early period of Europeanization and by the preferences of the Turkish government at the later stages, which also determine the direction of the reforms (i.e., Europeanization, de-Europeanization).
