Özet:

The research question of this article is about the impact of Turkey’s Balkan policy on Turkey – European Union relations within the context of changing structure of global political system. The Balkans has always been a special region for the great powers. This region is also vitally important for Turkey because of various ties between Turkey and the Balkans. Turkey’s Balkan policy is mainly constructed on multilateralism and support for international peace missions. The Balkans is an important region for the EU in terms of security, energy and illegal immigration, therefore, Turkey’s Balkan policy is under close scrutiny by the EU. * Dr., Marmara Üniversitesi, Avrupa Birliği Enstitüsü, AB Siyaseti ve Uluslararası İlişkiler Anabilim Dalı, e-posta: [email protected] This study aims to evaluate Turkey’s Balkan policy with respect to its impact on Turkey-EU relations in a neo-realist perspective. The main argument of this article is that Turkey’s multilateral and peace keeping policies, which help to avoid balancing and power contest by the major global actors, have a positive impact on Turkey-EU relations.

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