EU Relations with Turkey

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If the European Union (EU) is considered to be a sui generis organization in the international arena then it is not surprising that it has a sui generis applicant to be part of it. The Turkish case with the EU membership is the only one of its kind in the history of the EU due to the fact that the Turks are the champions of the longest-standing applicant title. Perhaps, this fact alone perhaps does not explain the uniqueness of the Turkey-EU relationship however when one takes a look into the details of this cumbersome love affair more features can be identified. This paper’s sole focus is on the foreign and security policy dimension namely Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The Turkish relationship with the EU’s CFSP created various amounts of debates among the scholars of academic world. Many tried to explain the reasons and motivations on why Turkey should participate? (Blockmans 2010, Doğan 2002, Ruacan 2007) or why it is beneficial for the EU and also for Turkey? (Demiralp, Baç 2008) These debates are very influential and helpful to make sense of the problematic Turkish case however they do not necessarily help us understand the actual question of why Turkey participates or choose to participate in the EU’s CFSP?
The paper will continue with brief theoretical discussion on the rationalist and constructivist accounts on explaining state socialization where the possibility of the two logics meet and then continue with the argument how “superficial norm-“following” does not necessarily have to come from the state ambition to reduce the costs of socialization as discussed by Diez and Schimmelfenning. The Turkish example will be shown as an antagonist due to possible observations in the changes of the Turkish involvement...

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