Діаспоральна політика Республіки Туреччина та її вплив на болгаро-турецькі відносини

Abstract

Дисертаційне дослідження присвячене вивченню діаспоральної політики Республіки Туреччина та її впливу на болгаро-турецькі відносини. Туреччина є однією з найактивніших країн світу щодо реалізації діаспоральної політики. Автором досліджена еволюція турецької діаспоральної політики протягом XX століття та її характерні риси на сучасному етапі. Особливу увагу зосереджено на тих змінах, які відбулися у Туреччині з приходом до влади Партії справедливості та розвитку та обумовили активізацію діаспоральної політики. Були виявлені групи населення, які виступають в якості об’єкту такої політики, зокрема, в Болгарії. Задля виявлення впливу такої турецької політики на болгаро-турецькі двосторонні відносини був проведений аналіз внутрішньої політики Болгарії щодо населення-об’єкту турецької діаспоральної стратегїї з точки зору теорії націоналізму. Виявлення точок зіткнення болгарського на турецького націоналізмів дало змогу встановити проблемні моменти у взаємовідносинах між двома країнами, а також представити загальну характеристику впливу діаспоральної політики Туреччини на болгаро-турецькі двосторонні відносини. The dissertation is devoted to the study of the diaspora engagement policy of the Republic of Turkey and its influence on the Bulgarian-Turkish relations. In recent decades, diaspora construction and engagement policy turned into one of the foreign policy instruments and diaspora studies became an integral part of the theory of international relations. The Republic of Turkey is one of those countries that implement its diaspora engagement policy very actively. The author investigates the evolution of the Turkish diaspora engagement policy during the 20th century from the moment of the establishment of the Turkish state up to the present. In order to determine the object of this policy, the author investigated the Turkish identity, determined the main criteria for membership in the Turkish national community, analyzed the official rhetoric of the country's top officials, as well as the activities of the relevant governmental and non-governmental organizations. The author also ascertained the groups of the population who act as the object of such a policy in various regions and countries of the world, in particular, in Bulgaria. At the initial stages of its statehood, as well as during the Cold War, Turkey was quite passive in its diaspora engagement. However, the new geopolitical conditions that followed the fall of the block system of international relations opened new opportunities for Turkish foreign policy, in particular, for interaction with the population abroad. In the 1990s, the ethnic factor played a key role in the Turkish diaspora engagement policy, and its geographical vector was directed to the newly-formed republics of the Central Asia. Particular attention in the thesis is devoted to the internal political changes that occurred in Turkey with the coming to power of the Justice and Development Party in 2002, as they led to the enhancement of the diaspora engagement policy in different directions. Together with the change in foreign policy priorities, a shift in the discourse about the Turkish national identity occurred: its ethno-national aspect gave way to a broader, Islamic aspect. In the modern times, Turkish diaspora engagement policy is aimed at such groups of the population as Turks and the entire population of Turkic origin (both Christians and Muslims), Muslim minorities living on the lands of the former Ottoman Empire, as well as other groups of the population, culturally close to Turkish. In Bulgaria, such a population is represented by two main groups - the Turks and the Bulgarian Muslims (pomaks). To determine the impact of the Turkish diaspora engagement policy towards Bulgarian Turks and Muslims on Bulgarian-Turkish bilateral relations, there was conducted a study of the relationship of these groups with the authorities of the Republic of Bulgaria. Nationalism was the driving force of the Bulgarian and Turkish statehood in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the manifestation of which had a negative impact on the dynamics of the BulgarianTurkish bilateral relations. The Bulgarian campaigns to assimilate the Turkish and Muslim populations during the 20th century were inevitably accompanied by the condemning reaction of Turkey. At the same time, nationalism is also at the heart of the diaspora engagement policy, namely, its special kind is "long-distance nationalism". Its characteristic feature is the absence of geographic boundaries, going beyond state borders and extending it to the territory and population of other states. The identification of points of contact between Bulgarian and Turkish nationalisms made it possible to identify the problems in the relations between the two countries, and also to present a general description of the impact of Turkey's diaspora engagement policy on the Bulgarian-Turkish bilateral relations. Thus, criticism from the Bulgarian side is caused by such questıons as excessive Turkish influence in the Bulgarian parliament through the pro-Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms, Turkish interference in Bulgaria's election process, the Turkification of Bulgarian Muslims, etc. Turkey is concerned about the high unemployment rate among the Turkish and Muslim population of Bulgaria, their low literacy rate, lack of access to education in their native language, and the status of this population in the Bulgarian constitution. Given the generally positive state of bilateral relations, these issues today are not on the agenda between the two states, but can be used when the changes of the foreign policy priorities occur.