| Summary: | this article examines the way in which the Members of the
European Parliament (MEPS) frame Turkey and how this affects their
voting stance towards Ankara in the parliamentary debates. Recent
studies (Baldwin and Widgrén 2005; Braghiroli 2012; Canan-Sokullu
2011) have demonstrated that the debate on Turkey’s European Union
(EU) membership produces a very divisive impact on the voting dynamics
and voting alignments in the European Parliament (EP) in the
light of its national and political significance. The parliamentary positions
on the ‘Turkey discourse’ range from enthusiastic support to
open Turkophobia. What is even more striking is the wide variety
of individual positions generally identifiable within the same political/ideological
area. To what extent are meps’ different perceptions
and representations of Turkey reflected in the way they vote when
Turkey is at stake in the EP? And, what is the impact of this state of
things on groups’ internal cohesion? This study addresses these two
fundamental questions using two different sources of data. Elite survey
data is used in order to capture MEPS’ perceptions of Turkey,
while meps’ voting behavior is assessed in the light of the expressed
votes.
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