Tariq Khan from Islamabad made an interview with me about Turkey-EU relations.
For the interview you can go to Youtube
Below is a summary of the interview:
1- Could you briefly elaborate the history of Turkey-EU relations?
Ever since its foundation, Turkey has closely followed developments in international conjuncture, with the aim of reaching the level of contemporary civilizations and has become an active member of international organizations such as OECD and NATO. In this direction, on 31 July 1959 Turkey applied for association with European Economic Community(EEC). After the signing of the Ankara Agreement (Turkey’s association agreement), which included a promise of full membership of the European Community (EC) at a later date, there emerged a great deal of reassurance that Turkey should continue on its stated path of becoming part of the community of Europe. In 1987, Turkey applied for full membership. The Ankara Agreement was signed in 1963 and included three phases through which the EC and Turkey would pass in order to achieve full economic integration, with both sides making trade concessions.
Turkey was finally accepted as candidate for full membership at the 10- 11 December 1999 Helsinki meeting of the European Council. Turkey has taken serious measures since 1999, by introducing comprehensive constitutional reforms and amendments to laws in order to comply with the criteria for accession. Today full membership of the EU represents the realization of Turkey’s modernization project. This is because westernization has been an overriding goal of the Turkish modernization project instigated by the state elite ever since the formation of the Republic in 1923.
Until today, In Turkey’s EU accession negotiations, 16 chapters are opened whereas one chapter is temporarily closed. Due to the political blockages of member states and Cyprus issue, the accession process have come to a deadlock. Positive Agenda was started on 17 May 2012 between Turkey and the European Commission. Positive Agenda is a working method, which aims enhancing Turkey-EU cooperation in areas of joint interest and fulfilling the technical opening and closing benchmarks of negotiation chapters, including politically blocked ones, with the established working groups.
2-In one of your articles titled "Turkey’s European Union Candidacy From an Identity Perspective: The End of Clashing Identities and Security Cultures?" you focused on the question of why Turkey wants to be a part of Europe by carrying out a considerable amount of reforms. Building on the social constructivist International Relations (IR) Theory, your paper told that the Realist IR Theory cannot provide a sufficient explanation in revealing Turkey’s reform movements towards becoming a full member of the EU. . .About EU and Turkey relations, could you talk more about that identity issue and the theories please?
Realism cannot display a cogent picture about European integration process. Because for Realists, the main actors on the world stage are states which are legally sovereign actors. Sovereignty means that there is no actor above the state that can compel it to act in specific ways. However, in the case of the EU, sovereignty of states may be set over to the EU in some policy areas. Moreover, the EU as an international organization has got a role in world politics which is as important as that of states.
Another issue which Realism cannot explain in a sufficient way is about how the notion of “Security Dilemma” is resolved. Security dilemmas exist ‘when the military preparations of one state create an irresolvable uncertainty in the mind of another as to whether those preparations are for defensive purposes only or whether they are for offensive purposes’. In this context, it can be argued that, in the relations between EU members, this kind of security dilemma cannot come into being because as they interact with one another in a socially-constructed world, they get to know each other better and this reduces such uncertainties about each other’s behavior.
The social constructivist approach basically argues that the social contexts embedding actors have some fundamental implications for the behavior, identities and roles enacted by those actors. Actors are seen as endogenized as wholes – their actions, interactions and their identities. The identities, interests and behavior of political agents are socially constructed by collective meaning, interpretations and assumptions about the world (Adler 1997, 324). On the other hand, the constructivist thinking stresses that the states are social beings and international relations stand on a social ground. So, it can be said that, the importance of international rules, norms, practices, and institutions have an impact on political processes among the states. Moreover, constructivists do not neglect the historical and social dimension of international relations while questioning the anarchical structure’s socio-cultural substructure and the actors’ interests and identities. Constructivists see the facts of international politics as not reflective of an objective, material reality but an intersubjective, or social reality.
3-What kind of challenges are existent in today's Turkey for the EU membership process?
The issues can be discussed in three different fields:
Rule of law
Media freedom
Civil liberties etc.
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