Just How Special is Turkey in Europe?

Abstract

Turkey-European Union Relations: Dilemmas, Opportunities, and Constraints. Edited by Meltem Muftuler-Bac, Yannis A. Stivachtis Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2008. 352 pp., $75.00 hardcover (ISBN-10: 0-7391-2447-1/ISBN-13: 978-0-7391-2447-5). Turkey's application for membership in the European Union (EU) disappeared from the headlines in 2007 and 2008, as conflict between secular and political authorities distracted attention inside the country and the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty cast a chill over the Union as a whole. Popular debate over EU enlargement came to the fore again, however, with the August 2008 armed conflict in Abkhazia and South Ossetia followed by the Russian invasion of Georgia. Worried about the implications of extending NATO guarantees further to the East, policy analysts and pundits across Europe reasoned that the best way to shore up the states on Russia's borders is to offer them the chance at EU membership. Whether such an offer will actually materialize for Moldavia or Ukraine remains to be seen. Certainly they are hopeful that it will. Even Georgia dreams of the prospect, and Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili has developed a habit of issuing statements with the EU flag in the background. Yet with all the furor about the EU's role in the Caucasus, the major element missing in the debate has been any consideration of EU relations with Turkey as a critical actor in the region. This is surprising for three reasons: Turkey shares a border …