Paper Titles & Abstracts

The origins of Turkey's interest in being both like and part of Europe can be traced back into the 1920s, Ataturk's Westernisation and democratisation programme in the early years of Turkish Republic was shaped in reaching this end. When the European Economic Community(EEC) was formed in 1957, Turkey along with Greece was one of the early candidates for the EEC's Association Membership. One of the most pro-European Prime Minister and then the President of Turkey Turgut Ozal applied for the full membership of the European Community (EC) in 1987 when Turkey was still rebuilding itself after the three years of military junta. It was not until 1999 a candidate membership status was granted to Turkey at the Helsinki Summit. Turkey felt most close to the full EU membership when it began accession negotiations with the EU in 2005. There are 35 chapters of the acquis communautaire Turkey needs to successfully complete in negotiations so to guarantee a full membership status. However ever since Turkey received the long-awaited date to begin accession negotiations, no noticeable progress has been made on Turkey's side in meeting the EU's requirements between 2005 and 2012. The question at the centre of this paper is whether the governments of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) have lost interest in the EU membership or the ever growing Eurosceptic public opinion in Turkey have impacted on the governments' European policy preferences. To answer these questions therefore I will discuss how and why the AKP government's attitudes have changed towards Turkey's EU membership by paying particular attention to the public opinion in Turkey.