Turkey on the road to European Union

Abstract

The relationship between Turkey and European Union was started by the commonwealth relationship between Turkey and Europe and Turkey applied for its membership yet in 1987. The committee has prepared its resolution on December 18, 1989 in which it was stated that the negotiation with Turkey on becoming a member was premature. The committee brought the economic, as well as the political reasons for that, also the fact that there was a dispute between Turkey and Greece and the existing events in Cypress. On February 5, 1990 the committee approved the resolution, according to which Turkey would become a member of the European Union after creating the appropriate environment.

In order to meet the necessary criteria for becoming a member of the European Union Turkey has carried out several reforms in 1990s and 2000s that were successful to some degree and on December 13, 1995 the Euro parliament gave the green light to the creation of the customs union. The customs union was a serious step toward Turkey and the European Union getting closer. By getting closer to Turkey the European Union showed the Islamic world that religion is not a hindering factor for the integration. In turn, an aspiration to Europe was strengthened in Turkey. The customs union was an excellent incentive for passing democratic reforms in Turkey that gave political leverage to the supporters of integration in the west.

During talking about the relationship between Turkey and European Union we should start counting from the Luxemburg summit of December of 1997. This summit was a significant starting point. The following summits that were held in Cardiff and Helsinki were also significant steps forward.In the process of integration in the European Union, Turkey has passed several economic and political reforms that gained the big scales after 2002 when Justice and Development Party came to power that was declaring the integration of Turkey into the European Union as its political priority and has actively continued the reforms, which included the wide-scale constitutional and general legal changes and their first package was enforced in 2004.

Despite Turkey's attempts, the Euro integration process was so problematic first of all for European countries. In the case of integration of a large country like Turkey, they besides were afraid of significantly increasing its role in the internal affairs of Europe, they also thought that Turkey was different from the European Union countries due to religious, cultural, or other factors. These and similar statements created the thought in Turkey that the European Union was a “Christian Club” and the religion was playing a significant role in determining the position of the European countries with regard to Turkey.

Finally, when Turkey has transferred toward the authoritarian presidential system after the repressions that started on July 15, 2016 the European Union stopped sending the financial help to Turkey and in March of 2019 the European Parliament supported suspension of the negotiations on Turkey membership in the European Union.Despite the tense relationship the European Union and Turkey are forced to cooperate on the basic issues. It can be said that the political partnership is very important for both parties.

Full isolation from Turkey is not desirable for the European Union, because Turkey controls large parts of Black and Mediterranean seas and balances Russia in the region. At the same time Turkey is one of the main energy pass way that is vitally important to Europe. Turkey has in turn its interests with the European Union. The strategic partnership and existing projects have high priority for Turkey. We mean the economic projects, membership of the European Customs Union that creates a significant economic welfare for Turkey.

As we mentioned the main factor for Turkey that forces it to cooperate with the European Union is the economy. The European Union is a large trading partner for Turkey. For example half of the goods exported from Turkey were exported to the European Union in 2018. The amount the European Union countries pay to Turkey on the basis of the agreement made in 2016 in order to stop Syrian or other non-European labor immigrants from passing borders of the European Union is also very important. Turkey will close the borders to potential illegal migrants and will agree on repatriation of the individuals for certain period who illegally cross the European Union borders, in exchange Turkey will receive 6 billion Euros in different stages, together with the non-visa movement right to the European Union countries and certain advantages in the process of Turkey becoming a member of the European Union. It is true that at one glance the agreement turned out to be successful, but it soon became a blackmail tool for the Turkish government and the president of Turkey often uses the migrant factor to blackmail the European Union countries in order to receive financial or other kind of support. Such strict attitude brings the process that we call the integration to the European Union to a dead end.