Policy Note / Nilgün Arısan Eralp, Senem Aydın Düzgit, Atila Eralp, Fuat Keyman, Çiğdem Nas

EU-Turkey relations have had its ups and downs in its long history. Yet, the recent months have witnessed an unprecedented deterioration in bilateral relations thanks to foreign policy actions in Libya and tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean, to the extent that the very fabric of the relationship might be changing.

In the past two decades, Turkey’s status in relation to the EU has gradually been transformed from a candidate country for full accession to a neighbour, and increasingly an adversary.  Turkey’s relations with the EU had been upgraded from an association to an accession framework with the start of membership negotiations in 2005. However, with the decision to not to open eight chapters of the accession negotiations and not to close any negotiating chapter due to the Cyprus conflict, and unilateral vetoes used by the French and the Cypriots to block the opening of more chapters, the accession framework became hollow and indeterminate. While the accession process continued to serve as a formal framework for EU-Turkish ties, relations between the parties increasingly displayed a confrontational and a more distrustful tone.

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This policy note has been prepared by TEPAV, IPM, and IKV.