Table Of ContentLGBTI Politics and Value Change
in Ukraine and Turkey
LGBTI Politics and Value Change in Ukraine and Turkey focuses on the
impact of European Union promotion of LGBTI rights in Turkey and
Ukraine, offering a re- evaluation of the mechanisms used by the EU and the
domestic and external conditions that result in different outcomes.
With the protection of LGBTI rights becoming one of the core principles
of the EU, the last two decades have seen a consistently growing commitment
of the Union to defending the human rights of LGBTI people, not only in its
member states but also internationally. Drawing on rich empirical data, this
work uses the cases of Turkey, a candidate state, and Ukraine, a state in the
European Neighbourhood, to evaluate the ability of the EU to promote tol-
erance and diversity in countries where the population has not experienced
a radical shift of attitudes toward LGBTI people. Examining the export of
‘European values’, politics of LGBTI rights in the enlarged European Union,
the development of LGBTI rights in Turkey and the transformation of its
political system, competing normative powers and LGBTI rights in Ukraine,
Maryna Shevtsova traces the ‘Europeanization’ of rights beyond Europe.
This book will be of interest to researchers in LGBTI Studies, Eastern
European Politics, the European Union and Gender Studies
Maryna Shevtsova is a Swedish Institute Postdoctoral Fellow in the Gender
Studies department, Lund University, Sweden. She has a PhD in Political
Science from Humboldt University, Germany. She was a Fulbright Fellow at
the Center for European Studies, University of Florida, USA (2018/2 019),
and a fellow of the Think Tank Young Professional Development Program
of the Open Society Initiative for Europe at CEDOS think tank, Kyiv,
Ukraine. Since 2017, she has been actively engaged in LGBTI rights activism
as a program coordinator for TERGO, a Kyiv-b ased NGO working for a
safe school environment for LGBTI students. Her research interests cover
LGBTI activism, Europeanization, queer migration, anti- gender movements
and right- wing populism in Central and Eastern Europe.
Routledge Studies in Gender, Sexuality and Politics
LGBTI Politics and Value Change in Ukraine and Turkey
Exporting Europe?
Maryna Shevtsova
www.routledge.com/ Routledge- Studies- in- Gender- Sexuality- and- Politics/
book- series/ SGSP
LGBTI Politics and Value
Change in Ukraine and Turkey
Exporting Europe?
Maryna Shevtsova
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 Maryna Shevtsova
The right of Maryna Shevtsova to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978- 0-3 67- 67641- 4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-67642-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 1-0 03- 13216- 5 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Newgen Publishing UK
Contents
Acknowledgements vi
List of abbreviations vii
1 Europeanization “beyond Europe”: promoting
LGBTI rights in third countries 1
2 Politics of LGBTI rights and non-d iscrimination in
the enlarged European Union 22
3 European integration as Turkey’s civilizational project 39
4 Eurocrisis and transformations of the political system
in Turkey 75
5 “Russian world” and “European values”: competing
normative powers and LGBTI rights in Ukraine 101
6 In the aftermath of Euromaidan: breaking the
granite wall 128
7 Tracing Europeanization of LGBTI rights “beyond
Europe” 156
8 Conclusion 171
Appendix 178
Index 185
Acknowledgements
Throughout the writing of this book, I was privileged to receive a great deal
of assistance and support.
I would first like to thank my mentor at the University of Florida, Conor
O’Dwyer, for his patient support and for all of the opportunities I was given
to further my research, and to Amie Kreppel and the Center of European
Studies, the University of Florida, for hosting me as a Fulbright Scholar as
I was working on this manuscript.
I also would like to thank Phillip M. Ayoub, whose kind encouragement
and support motivated me to continue and to complete this project and for
insightful feedback always pushing me to sharpen my thinking.
I would like to acknowledge my colleagues and friends, Sybille Luhmann,
Nikoloz Tokhvadze, Tatiana Klepikova, Tamara Martsenyuk, Olena Hloba,
Ganna Medko, and Roman Baiduk, for taking their time to read and
comment on my work extensively. Separately, I would like to thank the
following people who either read or discussed various parts of this book
with me for their feedback and valuable insights: Ellen Immergut, Silvia
v. Steinsdorff, Yulia Gradskova, Alexander Kondakov, Dafna Rachok, and
Philippe Joly.
Most importantly, this work would not be possible without all the inputs
and assistance of human rights activists and advocates in Ukraine, Turkey,
and Germany. With some of them, I had the honor to work together, and
others found time in their tight schedule to give me interviews. I would like to
particularly acknowledge the help of such organizations as Fulcrum (Tochka
Opory), CO Parents’ Initiative TERGO, Insight, and KyivPride, Ukraine, as
well as Kaos GL, Pink Triangle, Lambda Istanbul, and Listag, Turkey.
I would also like to thank the Gender Studies Department, Lund
University, where I spent the last months working on this book.
In addition, I would like to thank my parents, Olena Shevtsova and Iurii
Shevtsov, for their wise counsel and always being there for me. Finally,
I thank my friends, Daryna Syrchina, Olesya Borysko, and Enrique Santos
Rodrigues, for providing stimulating discussions and a sympathetic ear
whenever I needed it.
I dedicate this book to my grandmother, Prof. Lyudmila Popkova. You
are always in my heart.
Abbreviations
AA Association Agreement
AKP Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, Justice and Development Party
CEEC Central and Eastern European Countries
CHP Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, Republican People’s Party
CIS Commonwealth of Independent States
CSO Civil Society Organization
DCFTA Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas
EaP Eastern Partnership
EC European Communities
ECHR European Court of Human Rights
EEAS European External Action Service
EEC European Economic Community
EIDHR European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights
ENP European Neighborhood Policy
EP European Parliament
EU European Union
FRA Fundamental Rights Agency
HDP Halkların Demokratik Partisi, People’s Democratic Party
IDAHO International Days Against Homophobia
ILGA International Lesbian and Gay Association
LGBTI Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, or
otherwise queer
MEP Member of European Parliament
MHP Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, Nationalist Movement Party
MP Member of Parliament
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NGO Non- governmental organization
NPE Normative Power Europe
OECD Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development
OSCE Organization for Security and Co- operation in Europe
PCA Partnership and Cooperation Agreement
RPP Republican People’s Party
newgenprepdf
viii Abbreviations
SPoD Social Policies, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Studies Association
STGM Social Society Development Center
UNIAN Ukrainian Independent Information Agency
UK United Kingdom
UNO United Nations Organization
USA (US) United States of America
1 E uropeanization “beyond Europe”
Promoting LGBTI rights1 in third
countries
In the fall of 2013, the streets of major Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv,
the capital, were full of banners and lightboxes warning Ukrainians about
the downsides of closer ties with the European Union, i.e., the association
agreement that the Ukrainian government was planning to sign in November
of the same year. While some posters were claiming that the association with
the EU would lead Ukraine down a path of job losses and rising prices, the
others contained schematic pictures of two male and female couples holding
hands.2 “Association with the EU means same- sex marriages,” warned a
pro- Russian non- governmental organization Ukrainskiy vybor (Ukrainian
choice) founded one year prior by a Ukrainian business tycoon, Viktor
Medvedchuk, often seen as one of Putin’s closest associates in the country.
Later in November of 2013, merely a week before the summit in Vilnius,
Lithuania, where the agreement mentioned above was to be signed, President
of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych declared the suspension of preparations for
the treaty between Kyiv and Brussels, an unexpected turn of events for EU
envoys. As pro-E uropean groups in Ukraine were expressing their indig-
nation, Mykola Azarov, the Ukrainian Premier, addressed the rally of the
ruling Party of Regions with the following explanation of the decision.
Opposition leaders tell tales that if we sign the [association] agreement
[with the EU], we’ll start traveling to Europe without visas the next day.
Nothing of the kind. We are to comply with the following conditions: we
are to allow same- sex marriages, and we are to pass the equality [for
LGBTI people] act.3
To a person more or less familiar with what constituted the object of
negotiations on visa liberalization and association agreement between the
EU and Ukraine, both situations described above would seem nonsensical,
if not ridiculous. The situation, however, becomes less anecdotal, taking into
account that those claims were, in one case, made by the country’s second-
highest public official and, in the other case, backed by an influential pol-
itician and oligarch deeply involved in business relations with Russia. The
EU officials were quick to react and the next day, the day after the Premier’s
