Turkish Foreign Policy towards the Balkans: Overestimated Change within Underestimated Continuity? [2-s2.0-85147628024]

Abstract

This chapter concentrates changes in Turkey’s foreign policy with the European Union (EU) perspective and to analyze the recent developments in Turkey’s accession process from the viewpoint of both Turkey and the EU. Turkey applied for an association with the European Economic Community in 1959, about two years after the signing of the Rome Treaties. Since that time, changes of utmost significance have taken place in the international system, Europe and Turkey. The EU dimension tilted the balance in favor of the democratically elected to the detriment of the civil and military bureaucracy. The reluctance and decline in enthusiasm on Turkey’s part may be explained as a repercussion of EU policies towards Turkey as well as internal crises with regard to the political system in Turkey such as the case for the closure of the Justice and Development Party (JDP) before the Constitutional Court and the continued debates about the headscarf issue and Turkey’s changing foreign policy orientation. © 2011 Özden zeynep Oktav.