Daniel Heradstveit, Siri Neset, G. Matthew Bonham

Norway and Turkey: Possibilities of Cooperation through the Eyes of Turkish Opinion-Makers

The authors conducted interviews with opinion-makers in Turkey in 2012 to explore the feasibility of cooperation between Turkey and Norway on issues of peacebuilding. Norway was viewed by respondents as a country with softpower capabilities and a focus on human rights, democratic values, and the rule of law. Some opinion-makers also emphasized that both countries havea similar position on Palestine, a pivotal issue in the Middle East. Obstacles to cooperation include the geographical distance between the two countries, the lack of common institutions, Norway’s lack of experience with different ethnicities and faiths, Norway’s failure to object to the 2005-2006 Danish cartoon scandal regarding Mohammed, Norwegian criticism of Turkey’spolicies toward the Kurds, and its imprisonment of dissidents without due process of law. Despite these issues, respondents expressed enthusiasm about future cooperation, and view Norway as a far better potential collaborator than any other European country, in part because it, like Turkey, is outside the EU but a member of NATO. The issue of trade-offs between Norway’s use of soft power and its economic aspirations, namely oil investments in other countries, was also explored. The article concludes with a discussion of the possibility that increased cooperation between Turkey and Norway may give rise to “Turkophobia”, an extension of “Islamophobia”, a simplistic interpretative framework that rests on cultural misunderstanding and miscommunication.

Keywords:

Turkish-Norwegian cooperation, peacebuilding, democracy soft power, tradeoffs, Turkophobia,

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ISSN: 2146-7757
Yayın Aralığı: Yılda 2 Sayı
Başlangıç: 2012
Yayıncı: Dış Politika ve Barış Araştırmaları Merkezi, İhsan Doğramacı Barış Vakfı