Turkey's accession to the European Union. (c2012)

Abstract

The accession process of Turkey into the European Union has been a long and drawn out process. Ever since Turkey and the EEC signed an agreement, Turkey was lead to believe that it will be granted membership into the European Union. While there are obvious religious and cultural differences, Turkey had made large strides with regards to becoming more in line with the European Union’s ideology and standards. Turkey has suffered from the fact that there are so-called “brakemen” states, which still have been acting as a hindrance with regards to the smooth flow of the process. These states have objections to Turkish accession due to issues that they claim should be resolved before Turkey is allowed to join the European Union. Furthermore, they note that there are serious economic, geopolitical and cultural aspects that need to be looked at in order for Turkey to be able to fully integrate into the Union. This being said, the European Union has made a public commitment to allow Turkey into the Union based on the founding principles of the Union and the fact that the Union has characterized Turkey as being “European”. If the Union is to hold back on the promises that it has made to Turkey, it runs the risk of losing credibility among the international community. This paper aims to understand the problems and hindrances that have plagued Turkey’s accession and to analyze them within a framework. Given that there has been much research done on the topic, this paper aims to add its own new contribution through its analysis of the various issues affecting accession as well as analysing the structural and intergovernmental problems within the EU that have also impacted its stance towards Turkey.