The main objective of EMOFORTE (EMOtions in the FOReign Policy of Turkey towards the EU) was to reach a deeper understanding about emotions in Turkish political discourse regarding the EU and thereby, to expand the current knowledge about political, ideological, cultural and psychological factors which drive increasing nationalism, populism, and authoritarianism in Turkey and about their impact on the cooperation between Turkey and the EU in the global and regional issues. With this aim, it analysed both the dominant and dissident foreign policy discourses of Turkish political elites (i.e. politicians, parliamentarians, party officials, and bureaucrats) in terms of emotions materialised in identity discourses and in the narratives about Europe on the basis of an interdisciplinary methodological model comprehensive enough to account for the emotions as a multi-level phenomenon with individual, social, cultural and international dimensions.
With a smooth research process, EMOFORTE has developed a comparative, interdisciplinary method on the basis of a post-structural approach to emotions in discourse analysis and achieved the project milestones together with research findings and outputs which serve to a profound understanding of transformations in Turkish Foreign Policy in relation to Europe by focusing on emotions as discursive elements in contested national identity constructions and representations of Europe.
In order to achieve a profound understanding of transformations in Turkish Foreign Policy in relation to Europe, EMOFORTE focused on emotions as discursive elements in contested national identity constructions and representations of Europe, and developed a comparative, interdisciplinary method on the basis of a post-structural approach to emotions in discourse analysis.
