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Despite scholarly interest in the process of Turkey's candidacy for European Union (EU) membership, what is missing in the literature is a detailed examination of Turkish public opinion on the issue. Using Turkish Election Surveys, Eurobarometer surveys and International Social Survey Programme data, we test whether economic considerations, support for democracy, attachment to national identity and religiosity affect Turkish individuals' attitudes towards Turkey's EU membership. Perceived national economic conditions and national identity have a negative impact while satisfaction with democracy is positively linked to support for EU membership. Contrary to expectations, religion exerts no significant influence over membership preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores what conditions or what specific issues lead to shifts in the positioning of the Nationalist Movement Party (Milliyetci Hareket Partisi, MHP) towards Turkey's European Union (EU) membership goal. The article first examines the MHP's background and characteristics and compares it with similar parties in Western Europe. Subsequently, the MHP's EU stance during 1999-2002 and in the post-2002 period is discussed. The article concludes that ideology matters for the MHP but that shifts in degrees of Euroscepticisim during particular periods can be explained by strategic considerations of the MHP, which respond to the party's electoral gains or losses, its position in the party political spectrum and whether it is in government, in opposition or outside parliament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union in general and the European Commission in particular are characterised by supranational governance. The enlargement policy gives the Commission the opportunity to export and promote supranational norms and define the boundaries of Europe as a supranational polity through the conditionality of membership and intensive contact with the candidate countries. This article analyses the discourses of the Commission on Turkey and gives us insights into how well Turkey fits the supranational model in the eyes of Commission officials. It demonstrates how the boundaries of supranationalism are set and even challenged by the prospects of Turkey's accession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the issue of early preferences of national political parties in the EU regarding Turkey's accession. Two main hypotheses are proposed. First, national moderate parties contribute mainly to the de facto transformation of the accession in an 'open' process by developing volatile attitudes. Second, in the case of moderate parties, volatile attitudes and concrete political discourses on Turkey's accession are mainly determined by explanatory factors other than ideology (structural and strategic factors). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pre-accession strategy, by challenging national sovereignty, erodes motivations for EU membership in the candidate countries, hence arising nationalistic reactions. Euroscepticism manifests itself in various forms depending on the way the country undergoes the transition, the domestic meaning of the accession and the country-specific patterns of euroscepticism. The Central and Eastern European countries mostly display great motivations for accession. The gap between expectations and the EU's functioning feed public euroscepticism. Mainstream party consensus however, often filters euroscepticism. Turkey distinguishes by an overall mistrust at both public and party level. The EU's reform demands and the European reluctance for Turkish accession have generated mistrust, focusing the 'EU debate' on the cost of accession. At public level, mistrust has fed the idea of an 'EU threat' around which the different spheres of the society have come together to oppose EU membership. At party level, mistrust caused parties from fully embracing the EU prospective, which the 2002 elections exemplify. The Turkish case thus illustrates how the uncertainty of the accession affects public opinion and party positioning on the EU issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the present time, there are no clear outcomes in Turkey's European Union (EU) accession process. By the end of the two years following the rise of the pro-Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) to the government in 2002, Turkey's accession process entered into a stalemate. Potent political opposition to the Turkish candidacy in Europe has escalated, despite a staunch Turkish political commitment since 1999 to meet the Copenhagen Criteria for admission. In this article, we argue that Turkey's EU accession process has contributed to opening political spaces for Islamism and ethno-nationalism in the country, ironically producing societal and political forces undermining Turkish membership. We inquire first into the practical reasons obstructing Turkey's membership to the Union and second into the societal and political implications of the continuation of the bleak possibility of EU membership for Turkey. As far as the latter is considered, our focus is limited to an analysis of the politicization and institutionalization of the ethnic and Islamist conservative politics in Turkey within the process of "liberal democracy." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]