Abstract

AbstractThis chapter assesses the compatibility of Turkish and EU foreign policies between 1959 and 2020. Based on the analysis of key international developments and Turkey’s alignment with the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), the chapter identifies four periods that were characterized by different degrees of convergence and divergence. In the period between 1959 and 1998 compatibility was relatively high as Turkish foreign policy was guided by the goal of remaining part of the Western community of states throughout the Cold War and its immediate aftermath. Between 1999 and 2002, Turkish foreign policy became regionally more active, in a similar way to that of the EU, but produced few results. The period between 2003 and 2010, up to the Arab Spring, is identified as the ‘golden age’ of compatibility between Turkish and EU foreign policies. Turkey’s prevailing ethos of this period, i.e., relying on soft power and cooperation with neighbors, was generally in line with the EU’s foreign policy approach. Since 2011, divergences between the EU and Turkey have increased, in particular with regard to Syria, Cyprus, and the Eastern Mediterranean. As Turkey defined its norms and interests differently from the EU, its rate of alignment with the EU’s CFSP decreased remarkably. The chapter concludes by looking to the future, arguing that cooperation between the EU and Turkey is likely to focus on issues where there is strong compatibility in selected areas only, such as pandemics, counterterrorism, migration, and energy, and will be primarily based on ad hoc mechanisms.

Highlights

  • This definition potentially includes all types of external actions, including those related to economic relations, but the chapter confines its analysis to the issues covered by the European Union (EU)’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)

  • In 2018, the Council of the EU noted that ‘Turkey has been moving further away from the European Union’, and declared that Turkey’s accession negotiations and the process of the modernization of the EU– Turkey Customs Union came to a standstill (Council of the EU, 2018: 13)

  • As Turkey’s foreign policy has gradually become less compatible with that of the EU, it seems that areas of future cooperation will be limited to issues where interests overlap, such as pandemics, counterterrorism, migration, and energy

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Summary

13.1 Introduction1

Turkey’s potential contributions to the European Union’s (EU) foreign policy used to be considered as one of the reasons for offering EU membership to Turkey. This chapter analyzes Turkish foreign policy between 1959 and 2020 and its compatibility with EU foreign policy in this period. The analysis follows Christopher Hill’s definition of foreign policy as ‘the sum of official external relations conducted by an independent actor (usually but not exclusively a state) in international relations’ (Hill, 2016: 4). This definition potentially includes all types of external actions, including those related to economic relations, but the chapter confines its analysis to the issues covered by the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The conclusion discusses the prospects for future cooperation between Turkey and the EU by taking into account the latest regional and international developments

13.2 Starting Points of Convergence and Divergence Within the Western Alliance
13.3 Turkey’s Regional Activism à la EU
13.4 Turkey Adopts the EU’s Soft Power Approach
13.5.1 The Arab Spring and the War in Syria
13.5.2 Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean
Findings
13.6 Conclusion
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