Hope and Despair: Understanding Change in Turkey-EU Relations

Abstract

Joining the European Union has been a long-lasting priority in Turkish foreign policy and one which has fluctuated from relatively short episodes of hope to longer periods of frustration or even despair. The article reviews the intensity, drivers and justification of change during five critical periods: the 1959 application for association that led to the signature in 1963 of the Treaty of Ankara; the request for full membership in 1987 that led to the signature of the Customs Union in 1995; the Helsinki decision in 1999 to grant Turkey candidate status; the unenthusiastic opening of the accession negotiations in 2005; and the gradual evolution toward a transactional cooperation ever since, which coexists with signs of an increasingly adversarial relationship.

Keywords

Foreign Policy, Enlargement, Change, Europeanization, Customs Union

Citation

Eduard Soler i Lecha, “Hope and Despair: Understanding Change in Turkey-EU Relations”, International Relations, Vol. 20, No 78, 2023, pp. 21-42, DOI: 10.33458/uidergisi.1284135

Affiliations

• Eduard SOLER i LECHA, Associate Professor, Faculty of Political Science and Sociology, Autonomous University of Barcelona