European integration policy in Turkey: a comparison of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), 1965–2011

Through a discourse analysis of the election manifestos of the centre-left, the Republican People’s Party, and the nationalistic-right, the Nationalist Movement Party, from 1965 to 2011, this article investigates whether economic and political cleavages affect party positioning on European integration in Turkey. The article tentatively concludes that even though both parties’ positions on Europe are structured by the traditional left–right axis and resemble their Western and Eastern counterparts, and the arguments and discourses that led to these positions fundamentally diverge from Western and Eastern European experiences of political contestation.