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Article Minorities and Minority Rights in Europe(Ankara Univ European Union Research Centre, 2015) Yilmaz, GozdeEurope has been the home for various ethnic, linguistic and religious minority groups for decades and it is almost impossible to find an European country with ethnic, linguistic and religious homegeneity. Notably, conflicts in Europe after the Cold War demonstrated the importance of minority issues and minority rights for Europe. In this respect, the European organizations like the European Union or the Council of Europe actively seek to promote minority rights in Europe. Especially through the enlargement of these organizations, the promotion of minority rights widened its sphere in Europe by minority conditions required to be fulfilled by the candidate countries are for membership. However, there is still no minority standard in Europe like the one in human rights. In contrast, minority rights have still been held by sovereign European states rather than through a common platform.Article Citation - WoS: 1From Partners To Rivals: Normative Power Europe Meets Normative Power China(International Relations Council of Turkey, 2025) Sahin, Gözde YilmazThe European Union (EU) has been promoting its norms, values, and rules for decades. However, in the current international environment, the EU’s normative power is not being received well outside the EU, particularly in reference to the growing power of illiberal states. Within that context, this study explores EU-China relations across time and unpacks the position of normative power Europe towards China and the Chinese response. The study foregrounds the fruitless attempts of the EU to project its transformative power onto China and the growing resistance by China against this, which it expresses by presenting itself to the West as an alternative power with an alternative understanding of international politics.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: 6From Eu-Phoria To Eu-Phobia? Changing Turkish Narratives in Eu-Turkey Relations(Sciendo, 2019) Yilmaz, GozdeSince the 1999 launch of EU candidate country status, EU-Turkey relations have reached a new level of closer engagement. Across time, the relations demonstrate different levels of engagement and, accordingly, different narratives. Regarding the Turkish narratives of the EU, the EU is framed across time as follows: EU as a democratic anchor; EU as a disappointment; EU as an untrustworthy entity; EU as an enemy. As seen, Turkish narratives demonstrate a trend from EU-phoria to EU-phobia. In the end, it is important that EU-Turkey relations and Turkish narratives on the EU are not immune to domestic developments, especially those shaped by populist politics in the last two decades.Article Hagia Sophia's Reconversion: Turkey's De-Europeanization through Lefebvre's Spatial Triad(Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2026) Akdemir, Tugba Gurcel; Resuloglu, CilgaHagia Sophia, as a monument of enduring historical and cultural significance, has long stood at the intersection of religious, spatial, and political transformations. Its successive conversions - from basilica to mosque, from museum to mosque again - constitute the layers of its multidimensional character and reflect its symbolic role beyond mere architecture as a palimpsest of meanings. Throughout history, sovereignty over Hagia Sophia has embodied hegemonic power, with its spatial reconfigurations serving political concerns and ideological narratives. This article argues that Turkey's recent de-Europeanization is materially and symbolically manifested in the 2020 reconversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque. By situating this transformation within Lefebvre's triadic spatial model-perceived space, conceived space, and lived space, the study conceptualizes Hagia Sophia as a paradigmatic site where space, power, and politics intersect, offering an interdisciplinary framework that links the politics of Europeanization with the spatial production of power.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.
