Turkey's Dream of Democracy

Bibliographic Data

ID4451797
AuthorsEric Rouleau (corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume79
Issue6
Pages100
Publication date2000-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueForeign Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0015-7120 • E-ISSN: 2327-7793
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/20049970
OpenAlexW2561304492
LanguageEN
Citations received10

Turkey today stands at a crossroads. Few other moments in the 77-year history of the Turkish republic have been so decisive. In the coming weeks, its parliament will begin to consider the accession partnership recently presented to it by the European Union. The document is a road map for the far-reaching economic and political reforms Turkey must enact if it is to join the eu. Actual membership negotiations between Ankara and Brussels cannot begin until these reforms are implemented, which both parties hope will happen before 2004. But if Turkey expects to meet that deadline, it will need to start acting fast. Less than a year ago in Helsinki, Finland, the eu finally decided to accept Turkey's candidacy for membership. The Turks were over joyed. Since 1987, all of their previous applications to join the eu had been rejected. For 12 years, Turkey had complained that as a Muslim nation, it was being discriminated against by an exclusively Christian club. The Europeans had countered that democratic and economic deficiencies in Turkey's institutions and practices disqualified it from membership. If Ankara really wanted to join, Brussels instructed, it should start taking steps to meet the union's many requirements. Then, at the December 1999 Helsinki meeting, the eu softened its stance and dropped its preconditions. The reasons for this about-face were several. Thanks to a thaw in bilateral relations, Greece had finally

Democracy · Democratization · Development economics · Dream · Economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Law · Psychology · Turkey's Politics and Society

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