Turkey-EU Relations

This paper focuses on the political participation of Turkey’s two largest minorities, the Kurds and the Alevis. It argues that the political participation of Kurds and Alevis is disproportionately weak compared with their population size both for historical reasons and due to state practices. Creating an environment conducive to strong political participation of Turkey’s Kurds and Alevis will comprise a decisive step in the course of Turkey’s transformation from a procedural to a substantive democracy. Political integration of Kurds and Alevis would also mean the removal of a potential source of domestic conflict and enhance the long‐term stability of the Turkish political system.

Man hat bislang in Deutschland großes Interesse für den EU-Beitrittsprozess der Türkei gezeigt, denn Deutschland ist ein EU-Mitgliedstaat mit großem politischem Gewicht und eine Lokomotive der europäischen Integration. Da der Beitritt der Türkei sehr weit gehende Folgen für Politik, Wirtschaft, Struktur und Identität der Europäischen Union hätte, wurde er zu einem der wichtigsten Themen in der innerdeutschen politischen Debatte. Während die SPD-Regierung die EU-Beitrittsperspektive der Türkei unterstützte, stimmte die Opposition (hauptsächlich die CDU/CSU) mit dieser Politik nicht überein. Die Auseinandersetzung mit diesem Thema hat sich ausgeweitet und ist zu einer Debatte über die Zukunft der Europäischen Union geworden. Ob multireligiös oder christlich, föderalistisch oder nationalstaatlich, geopolitisch aktiv oder nach innen gerichtet – im Verlauf der Debatte über einen EU-Beitritt der Türkei wurden unterschiedliche Visionen der Europäischen Union vorgebracht. Außerdem trägt die Anwesenheit von ca. 3 Millionen türkischen Migranten und Deutschen türkischer Herkunft in Deutschland, die größte türkische Gemeinde in Westeuropa, dazu bei, dass die Debatte über einen möglichen EU-Beitritt der Türkei wichtige innenpolitische Züge angenommen hat.
Diese Studie hat vor, ein Schlüsselthema für den Erfolg des Beitrittsprozesses in der Türkei zu erläutern. Sie untersucht die Frage von Säkularismus in Zusammenhang mit dem Einfluss der europäischen Institutionen auf die Demokratisierungsschritte, die während der letzten Jahre die türkische Demokratie stark geändert haben. Die Haupthypothese dieser Studie lautet, dass eine Liberalisierung des türkischen Säkularismus ein kritischer Schritt im Laufe des Demokratisierungsprozesses der Türkei ist. Die europäischen Institutionen sollten von der wachsenden antiislamistichen Welle nicht beeinflusst lassen werden und die türkischen moderaten Islamisten unterstützen. So kann sowohl der Reformprozess vollendet werden, als auch europäische Institutionen können beweisen, dass sie ihren eigenen liberalen Prinzipien treu bleiben, auch wenn es sich um Islam handelt.

While Turkish political Islam has historically expressed its opposition to the prospect of
Turkey’s full participation in a “Christian Club,” the recent EU policy of AKP has
constituted a radical breach with that past: AKP is now among the staunchest supporters
of Turkey’s EU integration. The AKP case is only seemingly a paradox. In fact, it is
highly indicative of how ruling party agendas are modified on account of realism,
expedience and external pressure. The success of the AKP’s EU policy would refute the
incompatibility of Islamic politics with Western political values, while its viability will be
affected by the EU’s stance on Turkey’s membership bid.

The thesis aims at defining the European public policies on migration with a specific focus on the so-called process of 'externalization of frontiers'. As a result, the work presents the outcomes - on political, geo-political and social terms – of the European public policy approach carried on upon regional and national levels, and will introduce the origins of the European failure to effectively face the phenomenon on a long-term based plan. A case study of the March 2016 EU-Turkey Deal will be approached in this view.
Specifically, after a presentation of the theories and concepts for the comprehension of the thesis and after a diachronic analysis of the development of these public policies in Europe it was added the description of the inward migratory fluxes in Europe since 2014 onwards, period that the common narration defines as the start of the 'migration crisis'. To a detailed analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data on migration and asylum in Europe from that year onwards, was confronted the public narration made about it by media and politicians, which considerably affected the capacity of objective comprehension of data from the civil society and which in part oriented the following electoral choices.
To that it was added the fragmented reactions of the EU, un-efficient adaptations of asylum and integration capacities of the member states and an unfinished Common European Policy on Asylum - which has been ostracized by blocks of member states (as the Visegrad groups) in opposition to the more progressive side. By this situation a strong socio-political pressure increased, so that in Europe a process of political extremization took place which manifested itself with the advancements of the anti-Islamic and anti-migrants’ parties both at national election polls than in the European Parliamentarian elections. At the same time, the Union implemented new public policies which were more focused on a security-based approach and on cooperation with third countries.
Therefore, the third chapter of the thesis started with a study on the development of the public policies on migration of the main transit country for migrants from Middle East towards Europe - Turkey -  and discussed the process of 'europeanization' of the latter. To better understand how these public policies evolved and within which context, an explanatory description of the socio-political development of the Turkish Republic was made essential even to describe the cultural and political framework within which these policies evolved. Finally, an analysis of the changes of the last decade in the Republic allow us to find insight answers to the recent relations between EU and Turkey for what concerns the management of migratory fluxes.
Finally, the last chapter analyzed the humanitarian crisis emerged during the Syrian conflict, the asylum management of Syrian refugees in Turkey and the causes for the creation of the EU-Turkey Pact on Migration in March 2016, implemented by the EU as an extrema ratio measure to reduce the socio-political pressures taking place within its territory. In so doing, Europe chose to 'externalize' its external frontiers, de facto becoming dependent from Turkish respect of the Pact. Therefore, the thesis highlighted the major point of the Pact and its consequences in Europe - especially in Greece - and on refugees, and its failure.
The thesis concludes with an analysis of the possible future direction of the European public policies on migration, to which the new European Plan on Asylum and Migration presented by the European Commission in September 2020 represents and important point of interest.

This article focuses on the relationship between Alevis and the Turkish and German states. It does so by examining the Turkish Alevi Opening (2009-2010) and the German Islam Conference (2006-present), two unprecedented official platforms aimed at improving Alevis' political participation. The study asks why such state-sponsored initiatives came into existence in Turkey and Germany, and why the German Islam Conference has proven more successful from the perspective of Alevis. It argues that even though the diffusion of EU norms and pressure from transnational advocacy networks have increased awareness regarding the Alevi issue, domestic factors have been more salient in the emergence and outcome of these initiatives in both countries.

The paper introduces the curriculum, methods and workplan of a graduate course titled “EU Good Governance Promotion in Turkey”, taught by the author during the Spring semester of 2019-2020 at
Altınbaş University in Istanbul, Turkey. It includes instructions for a simulation game on the European Council. The course endows students with knowledge on EU anti-corruption strategies whilst providing
analytical tools to understand good governance from a policy perspective and helps contextualize EU strategies and policies within the anti-corruption research. By doing so, the course aims to contribute to
the political science curricula at Turkish universities which remain rather weak when it comes to the EU-related issues of governance.

This article constitutes a condensed attempt to reflect on the contemporary role of the Republic of Bulgaria in the context of the Balkan transit route and challenges to ensure security in the region. The main questions the author addresses include the influence of the mechanisms of regulating the flow of immigrants introduced by individual countries in close proximity to Bulgaria, as well as the way in which the country struggling with many social and economic problems secures its borders against the uncontrolled inflow of the illegal migration.

In post-Arab Spring period, the European Union's (EU) migration policy has followed a security-oriented trend; and through the externalisation of its migration policies, the Union's impact has gradually reached out at various actors such as neighbouring, third and candidate countries including Turkey. In time of facing intense refugee crisis originating from Syria, it is observed that the EU is currently struggling to prevent illegal migration, human trafficking and organised crime widely taking place at the Aegean Sea. In this context, primarily due to its geopolitical position, Turkey has inherently become a strategic partner of the EU for the peaceful management of ever increasing migration flows towards the EU. Given that, the Syrian refugee crisis is depicted as one of the primary reasons for the recent pragmatic re-engagement between Turkey and the EU particularly aiming at the promotion of peaceful management and prevention of irregular migration flows towards Europe. This paper analyses the dynamics of political bargaining between Turkey and the EU by delving into the features of Turkey-EU refugee deal as a paradigm-directed activity. This paper henceforth aims to ponder upon the opportunities and costs associated with the cooperative vs. non-cooperative bargaining models by taking into consideration of the external stimuli and internal processes along with political actors' intentions both at the national and supranational level.

This paper presents an analysis of the future of European Union (EU) security in terms of EU- Turkey relations. It argues that, first, Turkey’s military capability and experience in military operations, secular understanding of Islam, geostrategic position and connections with the unstable periphery of Europe could enhance the credibility and capability of the Common Security and Defence policy (CSDP) of the EU. Thus, second, development of the cooperative relations between Turkey and EU is crucial for future of the EU security. To investigate these phenomena, this study seeks to assess main motivations and interests behind the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and Turkey’s roles and contributions to CSDP. It focuses on Turkey’s position and role in the European security and defence structure and EU’s new arrangements in the European security and defence architecture. Turkey’s policy towards rising new developments in the European security system in post-Cold War era will be analysed. it examines security factors behind the EU-Turkey relations and questions the role of Turkey in the future of EU security and defence architecture.
The paper will, first, examine the security motivations and interests behind European integration throughout the EU/CSDP and the enlargement policy of the EU. Second, it will assess cooperation between Turkey and EU on Security and Turkey’s position, role and meaning in the Euro-Atlantic security architecture. Then it will evaluate the process of European Security and Defence Identity (ESDI) and the attempts to build the EU’s autonomous security and defence architecture in post St Mola summit. By doing so, it will assess Turkey’s policy toward this new constructing European security architecture by arguing Turkey’s demands, and EU’s promises and offers to Turkey on ESDI/CSDP and Turkey’s veto on CSDP- North Atlatic Treaty Organization (NATO) co-operation. Finally, it will assess the prospect role of Turkey in European security architecture by analysing whether, if so, how and to what extent Turkey could contribute to the credibility and capability of CSDP.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the extent of euro’s challenge to the US dollar as an international currency, focusing on comparisons between these two major currencies’ international roles and their private and official uses as a store of value, a medium of exchange and a unit of account throughout the world, and specifically in Turkey. The thesis evaluates the roles of the euro and US dollar as financing and investment, invocing, vehicle, reserve, anchor and intervention currencies basically in financial markets, foreign trade, foreign exchange markets, foreign exchange reserves and exchange rate regimes globally and in Turkey. The evaluations highlight the fact that the euro has been successfull as an international currency since its introduction in 1999 and is the second most widely used international currency in all the main international currency roles, after the US dollar. The findings of the thesis indicate that the use of the euro shows an increasing trend and the euro is likely to play an increasingly prominent role in the world, and specifically in Turkey.

Keywords: Euro, US Dollar, Euro-US Dollar Rivalry, Currency Competition, European Union, Turkey

The May 2019 EP elections once again highlighted the current cultural backlash throughout Europe against progressive values such as cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism, which impacts on the ‘future of Europe’ debate, raising important questions for the evolution of Turkey-EU relations. Even though Turkey is no longer a hot topic in EU political parlance and public opinion, opposition to Turkish EU membership continues in the form of nativism, particularly with reference to the issues of immigration and Islam, as the cases of AfD in Germany and UKIP in Britain show.

Along with other politicized elements of the EU-Turkey relations, the debate over the Customs Union
modernization is also ready to start another political struggle between the sides. This study aims to
briefly analyze this proposed modernization of the Customs Union from different viewpoints. In this
regard, the research will be based on the historical background of the current deal, main elements of the
modernization and future projections towards its advantages and challenges. The conceptual framework of the proposed modernization will be investigated through the idea of “differentiated integration”.

Since the end of World War II, foreign policy and security issues have haunted the European dreams of complete integration in terms of alignment in a highly challenging field, which is also constantly
interrupted by sovereignty concerns of member states. Within today’s changing dynamics, the EU’s current instruments seem to fall short of preventing terrorism or providing a meaningful answer to the problems in the Middle East. The EU’s capacity to act in this field needs to be strengthened. The newest approach presented by the European External Action Service (EEAS) is called PESCO (the Permanent Structured Cooperation) and aims to change this current structure of “inactivity”. This short paper will briefly analyze this new instrument.

This article aims to explain the slowing down of European Union (EU)–Turkish relations since the start of the accession negotiations in 2005 with international level systemic analysis. For this purpose, it examines the current challenges the new rising powers pose to the
US-led unipolar international order and it shows how both the EU’s and Turkey’s responses to these challenges influence their relative powers as well as the negotiation process. By focusing on international level systemic dynamics, the article differs from the institutional explanations
that explain EU–Turkish relations either with the utility-based logic of consequentialism or the norms-based logic of appropriateness.

The events that took place in Ukraine back in the fall of 2013 might be a harbinger of the surfeit of the European Union’s monopoly on transformative power. Even though for now there are few prominent indications of the waning of the ‘widening’ concept, the perception must be dawning on European leaders that leaders of pivotal EU neighbors such as the Russian President Putin have been carrying out a different or divergent political stratagem in the area than the EU’s neighborhood policy imagined. The concept of ‘widening’ might have been one of the most favorable foreign policies that the EU has had in the last decennium, but it seems like it may be precariously insufficient in the current situation. Being the largest case (in terms of population and area) and geopolitically most important of the countries presently negotiating for accession into the acquis communautaire, the EU’s relations with Turkey ought to be reevaluated considering the saltatory or dramatically transforming continental (and global) environment.