Modernist responses to post-modern demands? 'Differential treatment' in Europeanising Turkey

Abstract

This chapter examines the issue of differential treatment in contemporary Turkey, with an emphasis on the merits and limits of the rule and exemption approach in local context. I will survey the Turkish scene for requests for exemption from the law (EFL) and subsequent responses by state institutions – identifying, in the process, a significant mismatch between requests and responses, indicating that historically there has been little space in the Turkish polity to accommodate the range of EFL requests. However, recent signals indicate changes in this trend since Turkey attained European Union (EU) candidate status in 1999.