Abstract:

The Turkey–EU relations, which started in 1959, had passed through several important processes until today. Having achieved the status of a “candidate country” at the 1999 Helsinki Summit, Turkey started to make reforms to join the EU on 3 November 2002, the Justice and Development Party (JDP) came to power and continued making reforms to this process. Thereupon, after two years of political–legal reform efforts, it took the decision to start negotiations between Turkey and the EU on 3 October, 2005, at the 2004 Brussels Summit. After having started negotiations, the Cyprus problem emerged as a serious obstacle to Turkey’s full membership. In fact, the negotiations did not continue at the desired speed and only one negotiation topic was closed temporarily. Apart from these, after the unsuccessful “coup attempt” on 15 July, 2016, Turkey did not receive the adequate support it expected from the EU, and The European Parliament has proposed the suspension of negotiations with Turkey. After this decision, relations between Turkey and the EU have been strained and discussions began on alternative routes policies. In this context, the study examines changes in Turkey-EU relations during JDP and also addresses the causes of these changes.

Keywords: