The Europeanization of Turkish security culture : a reality or myth?

Turkish journey to Europe has a history longer than 40 years however especially in the last 10 years more and more scholars started to study “Europeanization of Turkey” especially the foreign policy dimension. This thesis aims at contributing the growing Europeanization literature by looking at the degree of Europeanization in Turkish Security Culture. The traditional realpolitik nature of Turkish Security Culture has shown signs of change in the last decade especially in terms of style and the process dimensions and more European means are utilized by Turkish policy makers. This new situation creates a critical question for anyone interested in Turkish politics: do those changes observed in Turkish Security Culture mean a European transformation has taken place? After explain and comparing the European and Realpolitik Security cultures, this thesis shows that Turkish Security Culture has undergone a change in terms of the style security matters are handles and in terms of processes involved, yet the ultimate goals Turkey pursuing are still defined in terms of realpolitik mindset. True Europeanization requires pursuit of European ends with European means and against this background, Turkish Security Culture, which desires to achieve realpolitik ends but wits European means, does not fit in to the definition of European Security Culture.