ELIF BABUL , Bureaucratic Intimacies: Translating Human Rights in Turkey , Stanford Studies inMiddle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford UniversityPress, 2017). Pp. 248. $25.95 paper. ISBN: 9781503603172
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Abstract
EU membership is predicated on not only a candidate country's integration into a market-oriented economy but also its commitment to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. Given the Turkish state’s historical notoriety in human rights violations, one of the most significant aspects of Turkey’s EU harmonization has been the improvement of its human rights record through both legal/administrative reforms and humanrights training programs aimed at reconfiguring the habits, attitudes, and dispositionsof government workers. During its first two terms, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government implemented a series of reforms such as those abolishing thedeath penalty and introducing harsh punishments for torturers. Unfortunately, this eraof progressive politics has proven to be short-lived. The AKP has taken an increasingly authoritarian turn following the 2013 Gezi Park protests, during which the police severely injured and killed some protestors. Ironically, the Turkish police were participating in anEU-funded training program on the prevention of disproportionate use of force while therevolt wastaking place. Babül setsout tomake sense of this paradox. How can seemingly democratic initiatives such as human rights training programs coexist with (and some-times even lead to) violent state practices and an illiberal form of governance” (p. 34)?Why hasn't the EU harmonization process led to a more progressive and human rights–friendly form of governance in Turkey? Some would be tempted to dismiss Turkey's participation in these EU-initiated human rights training programs as lip service. Babül, on the other hand, provides a nuanced critical scrutiny of these projects themselves and problematizes our assumptions about their progressive transformative potential for the advancement of human rights
