Civil society and the Europeanization of Greek-Turkish cooperation

Abstract:

Drawing on interviews with Greek and Turkish policymakers and civil society leaders, this article analyzes how the context provided by Turkey's EU membership candidacy has facilitated and strengthened Greek-Turkish cooperation. I argue that Turkey's EU membership candidacy has empowered the domestic actors in favour of promoting Greek-Turkish cooperation, and allowed them to use the EU to legitimize their cooperative policies and activities. Thereby, since the Helsinki decisions, Greek-Turkish cooperation has gained an EU dimension, which has made a reversal in bilateral relations much less likely.