Minority rights regime in Turkey and the European regional organizations

Abstract

This thesis examines the framework of minority rights in the context of Turkey and the European-regional organizations focusing on the ways of accommodating two interrelated dimensions of minority conditions: citizenship equality and ethno-cultural particularity. Due to fact that ideological discourse and practices of nation-state system have often conflated ^^citizenship” (statemembership) and ^‘nationality” (ethno-cultural membership), the possibility of developing genuine equality in ethno-culturally diverse circumstances has depended on the capacity to create a true reconciliation between citizenship equality and ethno-cultural particularity. This thesis affirmed that norms, principles, practices and instruments adopted in the European-regional organizations have largely reconciled citizenship equality and ethno-cultural diversity. The two concepts, however, have often excluded each other in the Turkish context where the principle of equality has usually been conflated with national uniformity while ethno-cultural diversity has frequently been associated with practices of inegalitarian treatment. It is only under the influence of EU integration that legal-political framework and practices of Turkish regime began to take substantive steps in the direction of reconciling citizenship equality with ethno-cultural, religious and linguistic particularities.