Cosmopolitan Europe – oxymoron or aspiration?: views from Turkey

Abstract

Rejecting national outlooks, European cosmopolitans advocate mutual recognition of difference at the interstices of the local, national, and transnational whilst retaining a core battery of liberal-cum-universal values. This piques the question: Can cosmopolitan Europe accommodate the difference of political cultures outside the western, liberal mainstream? To vet the question, we examine views of Turkish political elites from different political camps on the question of Turkish compatibility with a European cosmopolis. We show that despite the widely-held expectation that Turks favour a Europe of nation-states, there is some receptivity to cosmopolitanism. Sources of attraction and resistance, however, differ within and across camps. This paper’s focus on the Turkish views on European cosmopolitanism serves as a litmus test for the European cosmopolis. This sheds light on the future of Europe and the the debate within the European integration literature.