From Europeanization to De-Europeanization: The Europeanization Process of Turkey in 1999-2014

Abstract

Turkey has been experiencing a controversial path of Europeanization by the 1999 Helsinki Summit granting EU candidate country status to the country: a changing trend from progressing Europeanization to selective Europeanization and recently de-Europeanization. Such a puzzling process, especially considering the recent de-Europeanization, is explored in this article through critically discussing the role of the EU and domestic factors. The article argues that the process has been influenced by EU conditionality in the early period of Europeanization and by the preferences of the Turkish government at the later stages, which also determine the direction of the reforms (i.e., Europeanization, de-Europeanization).