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This study focuses on the intricacies of Turkey's prospective membership in the European Union. It begins with a chronology of EU-Turkey relations and an account of the debate on the future of the European Union, which relates to Turkey's prospective E.U. membership. It then explores the strategic implications of Turkey's accession to the European Union and addresses recent developments on the issue, with an emphasis on the start of accession negotiations on Oct. 3, 2005. In conclusion, this study highlights the factors that may have an impact on the outcome of EU-Turkey accession negotiations in the coming years.
Turkey's prospective membership in the European Union has captured significant attention in Europe for several years. Turkey's geographic size, large population, low per-capita income and level of economic development, as well as its location at the crossroads of Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, have made it a candidate state different from all the others. The prospect of Turkey's EU membership already has been a catalyst toward the realization of an ambitious-albeit incomplete-domestic reform program, which brought Turkey much closer to the model of consolidated liberal democracy. On the EU side, the debate on Turkey's membership has acted as a proxy for a larger and overdue debate on the future shape of the European Union. Hidden European fears and prejudices often come to surface when the discussion touches upon Turkey, which has very aptly been described as "Europe's tainted mirror."1 The start of accession negotiations on Oct. 3, 2005 was a major step toward Turkey's EU membership, yet this result is by no means guaranteed. Completion of the Turkish process of democratic consolidation, resolution of the EU institutional crisis and, last but not least, winning over an unfriendly European public opinion will be key issues for the success of the accession negotiations. Turkey's EU membership is a technically difficult but not impossible task. The existing obstacles arising from Turkey's demography and economy can be surmounted within a spirit of compromise for the mutual benefit of the European Union and Turkey.
Turkey and European Integration: The History2
Turkey's bid for membership in the European Union represents the latest and probably the most critical challenge in the 200-year history of Ottoman and Turkish efforts to adopt the...