Political and Economic Culture of Turkey and Integration into European Community

[Name of the Institute]

Political and Economic Culture of Turkey and Integration into European Community

Introduction

There is raging within the European Union for a long time a fierce debate about whether or not Turkey joins the European Union. Turkey already meets many conditions, but is still a long way to go for the actual to the European Union may accede.  Informal arguments as "Turkey is not big enough for Europe could prove a decisive role. Political and Economic conditions of the country contribute in adding difficulties for its integration into European community.

After 10 countries have joined on 1 May in Europe, Turkey is also preparing for a possible EU membership. The expansion of Europe in geographical terms cannot continue. Various European institutions would indeed be so completely stuck. Yet there are several European countries that still can join. Bulgaria and Romania from 2007 will be part of Europe, while Croatia has recently submitted her candidacy. The same applies to the four other Balkan countries. Countries like Norway, Iceland and Switzerland may possibly in the future become part of the European Union (Çarkoglu, Rubin, 2003). The borders of Europe are formed by Belarus, Ukraine and possibly the southern countries of the Caucasus. With these countries, the European Union is after a good neighborhood. There is no question of EU membership: one strives after close economic ties. In this paper I will be discussing the prospects and difficulties due to political and economic culture, of successfully fully integrating Turkey into the European Community.

Discussion

Article 28 of the 1963 Association Agreement between Turkey and the European Community recognizes the former's potential eligibility to full membership of the latter.1 Nonetheless, the European Union's (EU) negative opinion on Turkey's membership application in 1989 and its denial of candidate status at the 1997 Luxembourg European Council, created serious deadlocks in Turkey-EU relations. Thereafter, the Kosovo war and the post-earthquake Greek-Turkish rapprochement, opened new opportunities in Turkey-EU relations that materialized with the December 1999 decision to include Turkey as a full-fledged candidate to EU accession.

Turkey's Political Problems over the years

Turkey's overarching political problems stem from the country's failures along the uphill path to attain stable democracy and the respect of fundamental civic, political, and economic human rights. Democracy as a concept implies a political regime where the collectively is self-ruled. This in turn will be the case when a number of basic human rights and conditions are respected and satisfied for a relatively long period of time, including the right to vote, free and fair elections, the freedom to form and join organizations, the freedom of expression, the equal eligibility to public office, the right of leaders to compete for popular support, the availability of alternative sources of information, and the existence of voting procedures in governing institutions. The extents to which these rights and conditions apply determine how far a country enjoys a democratic regime in practice (Arikan, 2009).

Since the formation of the Republic in 1923, Turkey has always embraced the concept of democratic rule, incorporated in the six Kemalist tenets guiding the evolution of the Turkish state, and polity inscribed in Article 2 ...