Turkey, Its Changing National Identity and EU Accession: Explaining the Ups and Downs in the Turkish Democratization Reforms

The analysis of the bumpy Turkish EU accession reform process has largely been steeped either in a Rational Institutionalist logic of 'opportunity costs' both for the EU and for Turkey, or assessed as a question of the Turkish (in)compatibility with European values. We have, in contrast, chosen to focus on a different variable—the changing Turkish national identity—in the context of the Turkish EU accession and democratization reforms. Exploring the dynamics of the Turkish national identity has allowed us to gain additional and tentatively more nuanced understandings about the Turkish reform process. The article discusses the advances and set-backs which the Turkish democratization reforms have experienced in the years spanning 2002-2010.

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