Introduction

This chapter first introduces the subject matter based on the compatibility of Turkish identity with EU membership, which has provoked many debates in the EU because of the historical background of EU–Türkiye relations. Within this context, the chapter then reveals the aim and the main research question with its sub-questions of the study, which attempts to analyze how Türkiye and, in turn, Europe were discursively constructed through the representations of Türkiye in the European Parliament (EP) between 2007 and 2015. In order to answer these questions, the main argument of the study is introduced, and then the reason for selecting the EP and the discourses of MEPs during the official EP debates whose titles cover either the word “Türkiye” or “enlargement” between 2007 and 2015 as data is explained. Concerning the theoretical framework of the study, the chapter clarifies that the analysis is grounded on a social constructivist basis, while the analysis of the EP discourses on Türkiye in this study is carried out using the discourse-historical approach as the methodology. Lastly, three main limitations confronted in the book and an overview of the chapters are mentioned at the end.