THE LAST 5 YEARS OF TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF RELATIONS WITH THE EUROPEAN UNION

Abstract

Starting in 1963 with the Treaty of Ankara, Turkey’s the European Union adventure has been going
on with a very low momentum in recent years. In “the Arab Spring” process, due to differentiation
of approach to the cases between Turkey and some European countries as well as the prominence of
disagreements in political views have led to a bumpy relationship spiral. After 2015, conflicts
beginning with “the Syrian civil war” and “refugee problem” that were the reflections of the Arab
Spring have raised the tension between parts in addition to the attitudes of Turkey in issues such as
“anti-terrorism law”, “cross-border operations” and “the Eastern Mediterranean crisis”. Due to the
fact that the statements made by the parties against each other in the international arena become
threatening from time to time, problems become more complicated and both parts open up
uncompromising and disputed areas showing “security” reasons. In this study, these disputed areas,
which constitute the framework of the relations of Turkish foreign policy with the EU in the last 5
years, will be analyzed.