The European Union and the Kurds in Turkey

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter presented an extensive analysis of the EU’s actorness in the Kurdish issue in Turkey. The chapter started by examining whether and how the EU has, as an actor, identified, formulated and represented common interests in relation to the Kurdish issue in Turkey. Moreover, the chapter included an assessment of the EU’s acceptance by Turkey, one of the two primary stakeholders. Finally, the analysis includes an assessment of the EU’s performance and assessed the broader impact of the EU’s actorness in the Kurdish issue in Turkey. Shaped by the Copenhagen criteria, the EU’s approach to the Kurdish issue in Turkey has been one of the cases in which the EU has set and reinforced its image as a normative actor. While the EU and its member states have been calculative in their engagement with the Kurdish issue, the EU’s approach to this issue has remained largely normative, as reflected in a rhetoric consisting of calls for democratisation and respect for fundamental human rights and minority rights.