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The rise of the right in European politics have started to cast more doubt upon the European Union (EU) enlargement, especially one involves Turkey. The negotiations which started in 2005 are progressing at snail’s pace. Frustrated with the recalcitrance of the major EU powers, the Turkish masses seem to be growing increasingly cold to EU membership. .x000d..x000d.The Turkish population is becoming split over the issue of Turkish membership in the EU. This paper, using the results of a survey of nationally representative sample of Turkish voters before the 2007 legislative elections in Turkey, analyzes who among the Turkish voters support EU membership of Turkey and who oppose it, and why? This paper also addresses whether EU membership transcends party politics and constitutes a “state project” supported across partisan lines? The paper ends with examining if Turkey and the EU fall apart and decide to trek different routes what lies ahead for the interface of Turkey and EU member countries in NATO, and Council of Europe, and on issues of energy, security, immigration and beyond? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the major turning points for Turkish politics is the opening of its accession negotiations for European Union membership in 2005. The EU has significant leverage on countries aspiring for membership due to its political conditionality and through the applicant country's adaptation of its rules and laws to those of the EU. Thus, the process of membership negotiations impacts the applicant country's political process in a significant fashion. This paper proposes that as Turkey moves towards meeting the EU's standards in democracy as part and parcel of its accession requirements, the underlying anti-democratic tendencies and tensions in Turkish politics come to the fore front with the unexpected result that the process of democratization carries the danger of threatening the basis of individual rights and liberties in Turkey. This is because the democratization process that gained momentum in 2002 has led to a high degree of polarization in Turkish politics with the Islamists and secularists located at the opposite ends. This paper analyzes the main cleavages in Turkish politics; the Islamists versus the secularists and nationalists versus the globalists with respect to the issues of gender equality, the Kurdish problem and the role of the military in politics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of Turkey?s accession to the European Union reintroduces into the ever ongoing attempts to divide the world into culturally defined blocks the task of determining whether the Turkish nation is European enough topartake in the formation of a European identity. This paper compares and examines this possibility through two diametrically opposed theoretical frameworks, essentialism and constructivism, and attempts to bridge the gapbetween the two with reference to the particular case study.The main purpose of this paper is to examine the issues involved in reconciling the European with the Turkish identity and to determine, to the extent to which it is possible, whether it is indeed feasible for the Turkish people to constitute part of the European demos and for the emerging European identity to include the Turkish nation.The paper begins by briefly explaining how the idea of Europe has evolved throughout time, in such a manner as to render the formation of a European polity, a European ?demos? and, therefore, a European identity continuallymore likely and necessary. In accordance to theories of collective identity building a nation?s belonging to Europe, and thus its potential to embrace a European identity, is a combination of two main factors: its historical links with Europe and its will to be part of its present and future, or in the words of Anthony Smith, to hold a ?collective belief in the common destiny of [Europe] ?.Both a historical and a contemporary perspective should be taken into consideration, as is advocated respectively by the two main schools of thought on European identity building, essentialism and constitutionalism.Accordingly Turkey?s European orientation is examined under two angles. In a first section there is a critical overview of the extent to which the Turkish nation has been historically linked to Europe. This sectionexplores Turkish efforts to Europeanise from the catalytic Tanzimat reforms of the Ottoman Empire, to the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923 by Kemal Ataturk and the attempt to reform and change the notion of the nation and identity in Turkey towards a more western prototype. On a second level the paper assesses the existence or non-existence of the belief among the Turkish people in a common destiny of Turkey and Europe. This part draws on contemporary press releases in Turkey, commentaries in Journals regarding European attitudes towards the expansion, work on Turkish nationalism, interviews, and finally attitude surveys and opinion polls carried out in Turkey. The extent to which they identify with Europe as a cultural unit, and not only as a set of civic institutions, is the main point addressed in order to assess the whether and how far essentialism or constructivismapplies.The findings of this case study (2003) pointed towards the constructivist paradigm being more likely to apply. The notion of ?common heritage? between Turkey and Europe is used more often by the Turkish media within the context of the attack on the EU for rendering the process of Turkish accession painful and time-consuming, than it is experienced in Turkish national feeling. Though there may be a willingness to form a common political and economic destiny, there is little belief in the potential for the integration of cultures and the formation of an inclusive culturalidentity, in spite of the admittedly intense historical interaction between the two parties (as the new approaches in historiography are pointing out)... ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since November 2002, European integration of Turkey has been accelerated thanks to the commitment of Justice and Development Party (JDP) in joining the EU. In this process, JDP government established its vision on European integration on the discourse of ?dialogue among civilizations? which turned out to be an appealing one for both Turkish public and European politicians who support Turkey?s membership. As it receives more support, the discourse has been modified as ?the alliance of civilizations.? It is promoted as being pragmatically advantageous for both Turkey and EU, and as a good response to the ?clash of civilizations? thesis. This paper will question the ability of this perspective to challenge the ?clash? thesis and to be an appropriate ground for the development of Turkey-EU relations. It will be argued that the dialogue/alliance perspective is problematic for three reasons. First, it reproduces the civilizationist discourse, which is based on Orientalist assumptions. Second, by emphasizing categories like Islamic or Western civilizations, it has the danger of blurring the boundaries exist among the subunits constituting that larger categories. And finally, the dialogue/alliance perspective defines civilization on the basis of religion, obscuring the secular realities and reducing people into a single, religious identity. The paper will argue that the ?dialogue among civilizations? discourse cannot be an appropriate ground for the improvement of Turkey-EU relations since this perspective not only represents Turkey as more Islamic than it actually is, but also weakens the secular claims underlying the European identity. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey’s future in the European Union (EU) is a subject of intense debate both in Europe and in Turkey today. Although Turkey has applied to the EU 45 years ago, it is the only country which has not managed to become a full member of the Union so far. Aft ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is a first to provide a systematic analysis of whether determinants of public support for European Union membership are different in the post-communist Central and Eastern European countries than in Turkey. Since no previous study examines this ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]