Turkey's quest for EU membership: Recent developments

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: A- (Gut), School of Advanced Internatl. Studies (School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)), course: Europe and Islam, language: English, abstract: Until the formal opening of accession negotiations on 3 October 2005, the long history of EU-Turkey relations seemed to resemble a never-ending story - to the potential benefit of both sides. While Brussels was able to influence Turkish domestic and foreign policy with instruments of conditionality, reform-oriented currents in Ankara gratefully used this external pressure to modernize the country. But at some point, any enlargement process has to set deadlines, enforce conditions, and draw consequences. Therefore, the start of accession talks represented a positive development in so far as it gave a new stimulus to a process that had started slowing down. However, in November 2006, after Turkey had refused to open its ports and airspace to the Republic of Cyprus, EU-Turkey relations once again deteriorated significantly, leading to Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn's much-quoted statement of a 'train crash' scenario. Apart from the Cyprus issue, other developments such as the slowing pace of domestic reforms, the signs of rising of both nationalism and political Islam, and the declining public support for EU membership in Turkey itself (now less than 40%) as well as abroad reconfirm that relations between the two are going through a tumultuous phase - which is unlikely to change for the better soon, given that presidential and parliamentary elections are taking place in Turkey in 2007. This paper's goal is to depict and analyze EU-Turkey relations as they have unfolded during the last few years. In order to place recent developments in an accurate historic perspective, I will start by shortly summarizing the relationship from the very beginning until 2005 when official entry talks were finally launched. The next section will be dedicated to an evaluation of what has happened since then - what have been the main events that have put Turkey's quest for EU membership, whose outcome looked relatively promising in 2005, once again in jeopardy? Then, I will analyze some factors that are perceived as the main obstacles to Turkish accession to the EU. A conclusion will top off the paper.