Turkey And The Eu

What impact do issues of culture, religion and identity have on Turkey's chances of joining the EU? Are religious and cultural factors per se the primary obstacle to Turkish accession, or is it their interaction with other factors that is prolonging and complicating Turkey's progress towards EU membership? Mirela Bogdani here analyses the complex range of issues that are influencing the process of Turkey's accession to the EU, assesses the positions of different European actors towards Turkey's pursuit of EU membership and identifies the reasons for the European opposition. She also analyses the issues of political Islam, multiculturalism and the compatibility of Islam with democracy. This book will be an important resource for anyone interested in EU politics, EU enlargement policy, EU-Turkey relations, the relationship between religion and politics, political Islam, multiculturalism and supranational integration.

This title was first published in 2003.The book presents an analysis of the development of the European Union's policy towards Turkey from a comparative perspective and compares the EU's approach to the issues in the EU-Turkey relationship. However, the literature on EU-Turkey relations is excessively rigid, antiquated and opinionated, reflecting the stylized version of the official approaches to issues between the two. With this in mind, the primary objective of this study is to contribute to the literature by using a comparative approach to analyse these relations. Human rights, the Greco-Turkish dispute and the security considerations of both parties are chosen as specific policy issues. Moreover, the book adopts a new approach and covers several of the key topics in the EU enlargement debate. Finally, it explores the question as to whether the EU's containment policy will be sustainable in the long term and examines possible scenarios for both parties.

This book aims at uncovering the main obstacles and challenges to the Turkish accession to the European Union. Turkey's membership is one of the most important steps for the future of the European Union in terms of its integration and identity. The book provides a succinct analysis of the process and its future implications.

In recent years, Turkey has become an ever more important actor on the international stage. However, Turkey-EU relations still remain in a state of flux. The EU and Turkey seem to have moved apart in their political aspirations after Turkey’s EU accession talks faced a stalemate over the Republic of Cyprus’ EU accession as a divided island. Likewise, both Turkey and the EU have recently faced new socio-political realities, such as the Eurozone crisis, the Arab Spring and the Turkish government’s shifting foreign policy towards the Middle East region. Such developments have rendered EU membership potentially a less desirable prospect for an increasingly self-confident Turkey. In light of these recent events, this book explores the evolving challenges and opportunities facing the more than 50-year old Turkey-EU relationship. This volume focuses particularly on the role of the Cyprus issue, the potential for closer Turkey-EU cooperation in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, the impact on Turkish citizens and politics, as well as the concept of Europeanization, especially in relation to Turkey’s democratic reform process. In drawing together perspectives from the disciplines of international relations, political science and law, this book offers a unique, interdisciplinary outlook towards the changing role of Europe in Turkey’s political discourse. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of Turkey-EU relations, EU external relations Law, Europeanization and Turkish and Middle Eastern politics.

This open access book explores the new complexities and ambiguities that epitomize EU-Turkey relations. With a strong focus on the developments in the last decade, the book provides full access to a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted relationship through three entry points: (1) Theories and Concepts, (2) Institutions, and (3) Policies. Part I brings together complementary and competing analytical approaches to study the evolution of EU-Turkey relations, ranging from traditional integration theories to novel concepts. Part II investigates the institutional machinery of EU-Turkey relations by analyzing the roles and perspectives of the European Council, the European Commission, and the European Parliament. Part III offers analyses of the policies most relevant for the relationship: enlargement policy, trade and macroeconomic policies, foreign and security policy, migration and asylum policies, and energy policy. In Part IV, the volume closes with a systematic survey of the conditions under which cooperative trends in EU-Turkey relations could be (re)invigorated. The systematic setup and the balanced combination of distinguished experts from EU- and Turkey-based institutions make this book a fundamental reading for students, researchers, lecturers, and practitioners of EU-Turkey relations, European integration and Turkish foreign policy. Wulf Reiners is Senior Researcher and Head of the Managing Global Governance (MGG) Program of the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut fur Entwicklungspolitik (DIE). Ebru Turhan is Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science and International Relations, Turkish-German University in Istanbul, Turkey.

Turkish accession to the European Union is an important but controversial item on the agenda of the European Union. By focusing on the various domestic sources that drive Turkish politics, this comprehensive study of both classic and new topics supported by fresh, new insights fills a void in the current literature on Turkey-EU relations. This volume is a comprehensive, state of the art study of domestic politics and policies and their role in Turkey’s EU accession. Contributions are obtained from established scholars, acknowledged for their expertise in their respective fields. The content is structured along issues, dynamics, actors and policies that drive Turkish politics and it provides an integrated assessment of the dynamics in Turkey-EU relations to general readers, students and specialists in EU Enlargement and Turkish politics alike. Original contributions to ‘classic’ topics such as the customs union, human rights, military, civil society, public and elite opinion, political parties and the Kurdish issue are made by assessing the domestic sources of recent developments during the negotiations period. In addition, ‘new’ topics are included that previously have not been covered or analyzed in volumes on Turkish-EU relations such as the Alevi issue, European Turks, corruption in Turkey, and Turkish parliamentary elite opinion on Turkey and the EU. This book was published as a special issue of South European Society and Politics.

Turkish accession to the European Union is an important but controversial item on the agenda of the European Union. By focusing on the various domestic sources that drive Turkish politics, this comprehensive study of both classic and new topics supported by fresh, new insights fills a void in the current literature on Turkey-EU relations. This volume is a comprehensive, state of the art study of domestic politics and policies and their role in Turkey’s EU accession. Contributions are obtained from established scholars, acknowledged for their expertise in their respective fields. The content is structured along issues, dynamics, actors and policies that drive Turkish politics and it provides an integrated assessment of the dynamics in Turkey-EU relations to general readers, students and specialists in EU Enlargement and Turkish politics alike. Original contributions to ‘classic’ topics such as the customs union, human rights, military, civil society, public and elite opinion, political parties and the Kurdish issue are made by assessing the domestic sources of recent developments during the negotiations period. In addition, ‘new’ topics are included that previously have not been covered or analyzed in volumes on Turkish-EU relations such as the Alevi issue, European Turks, corruption in Turkey, and Turkish parliamentary elite opinion on Turkey and the EU. This book was published as a special issue of South European Society and Politics.

European views on Turkey’s membership in the EU have been split between those in support of its full integration and those advocating a privileged partnership. To the extent that many of the latter proposals imply that Turkey will be partially integrated within Europe in certain areas, the question of Turkey’s accession is probably not about ‘if’, but about ‘how much’ integration there will be within the Union’s structures. The purpose of this book is not to offer a definitive response to this question. The book aims instead to examine the complexity of the issues pertaining to Turkey’s prospective EU membership by presenting several, often divergent, accounts of the political, security and socio-economic dimensions of the entire process. The book provides a forum for an exchange of views among distinguished scholars and researchers from different national backgrounds in order to contribute to the ongoing public discussion of Turkey’s accession. Sophisticated, informative and refreshing in its argumentation, the book provides an excellent overview of the complexities of Turkey’s accession to the EU membership. Professor Mustafa Aydin, TOBB University of Economics and Technology A refreshing view from the European periphery, an original mirror of the Union's central challenges. Professor Georges Prevelakis, University of Paris 1 – Panthéon-Sorbonne