Two Paradigms of the Modern Turkish PoliticalSecurity Discourse – the Sèvres Syndrome and the National Oath: from Discourse to Policy

Abstract

The Sèvres syndrome, the fear of territorial loss being imposed on Turkey by foreign powers, again gains its active manifestation in modern Turkish official and political discourse. In parallel, Turkish authorities have taken aggressive and revisionist policy course in the neighbouring regions, based on the use of military force and continuous threat of it, bringing into agenda the territorial vision of the National oath. In the rhetorics of the authorities are combined the fear of territorial loss, the syndrome, on the other side as the countermeasure to it, aggressive and interventionist policy in neighboring regions, which is obviously not only in discoursive dimension but also in real military-political actions. So we can say that the current aggressive regional policy
of Turkey is determined by the fear of territorial dismemberment of Turkey. The Sèvres syndrome, as in the past, today also influences Turkish politics and the understanding of politics and world affairs.