Feeling Imagined Spaces: Emotional Geographies in the EU-Turkey Relations

Abstract

Geographies and borders have become often-debated concepts, especially in the view of the increasing impact of globalization and regional integration processes. In such cases, borders are attributed certain imagined meanings and more so, they are associated with feelings. Considering such dynamics, EU-Turkey relations can be considered a good example of how borders, emotions and spatial dimensions interact. However, not much attention has been given to the emotional facets of spatial relations. By utilizing the concept of “hot places”, this study tries to fill this void. We separate EU-Turkey relations into three phases: the Cold War, post-Cold War, and the peak of migration politics, driven by the Syrian Civil War. We argue that there is a specific hot place for each of these periods: Kreuzberg, Berlin for the period between 1959 and 1989, Cyprus for the post-Cold War period, and the Syrian conflict for the last period. Thus, this paper aims at suggesting a novel approach to the study of emotions, spatiality, and EU-Turkey relations.