Özet:

Utilizing data from European Parliament Research Group’s ‘Members of European Parliament (MEPs) Survey,’ conducted by David Farrell and his colleagues in 2006 and 2010, this article analyzes to what extent MEPs are supportive of Turkey’s EU accession and how their support shows variances across their national and European party group affiliations. In addition, by comparing MEPs’ opinion on Turkish accession to their opinion on the accession of Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia, the study seeks to understand whether Turkey is viewed differently by MEPs and to what extent it is perceived as a “category of its own” in the EP. The study finds that although some national and ideological affiliations of MEPs are associated with their attitudes toward Turkey, MEPs don’t display a strong level of cohesion across nationality and ideology in their views of Turkish accession. Moreover, the study demonstrates that most MEPs are against Turkey’s EU membership and Turkey is indeed viewed differently in the EP

Anahtar Kelimeler: