Turkey-EU relations and the Cyprus question

Abstract

This study aims to analyse the connection between the two very important foreign policy issues of Turkey, namely the Turkey-European Union Relations and the Cyprus Question. Turkey’s relations with the European Union is of utmost importance for Turkey. Since the establishment of Modem Turkey, it has sought ways to integrate itself with Europe, and its main institution the European Union. There is no doubt that integration with the EU will contribute much to Turkey’s development in many fields, like trade, democratic institutionalisation and human rights. While on the other hand Turkey’s position in the Cypms dispute is again of vital importance. The Turkish community living in the North is perceived as an extension of the motherland. Secondly, the island of Cypms has a strategic significance for Turkey. In Turkey, it is believed that if Cypms is lost, then Turkey would have no access to the Mediterranean. Moreover, after the 1990s, we see another actor in the Cypms question: the EU, with which Turkey aspires to be integrated. At this point, the writer aims at analysing the policy preferences of Turkish decision-makers as regards the Turkey-EU Relations and the Cypms question. One of the major aims of this study is to show that Turkey’s relations with the EU and its involvement in the Cypms question are two separate issues. Improvement in the Turkey-EU Relations and positive results in the Cypms question might be yielded if Txxrkey deals with these two issues separately.