How far Turkey has fulfilled Huntington' s conditions in the case of the E.U, Turkey, USA , Huntington,

Access to the European Union has become one of the primary goals of Turkey since 1950 and except the period of military government, all governments tried to do their best to achieve the membership of E.U. However, Turkey has to fulfill some conditions in order to achieve this goal and as of today Turkey has not succeeded yet. Turkey has too many acceptable reasons to be a member of E.U. In order to understand the reasons behind “Why does Turkey wants to be accepted by the E.U.?”, we also needed to evaluate answers of the questions like; “What is E.U?” and “What are the conditions of E.U to accept candidate countries?” As a Supranational Union, E.U has its own constitution and has twenty-seven members. Like other developing countries, Turkey wants to access to the E.U. because of economic, social, political and powerful reasons. Turkey’s geographical location is very important because of its neighboring countries and chance to gain soft power by accessing E.U

Election results since 1979

Political composition of the 7th parliament

european union stars

could be essential for Turkey. According to Huntington, Turkey should shift from one civilization to the other and there are three conditions for shifting one civilization to another. This essay will assess the question that “How can Turkey has met the conditions defined by Huntington?”Huntington’s first condition is the political elite, which include political parties, media and business should be eager to change and work-towards the integration. In Turkey, it seems that the political elite have not reached a consensus, yet. In spite the fact that the current government, which is AKP, supports to access to the E.U., MHP and CHP, which are Euro-sceptic, perceive European Union as a threat to the core values. MHP and CHP are reactive and keen on about the amendment of the article 301 of the Constitution of Republic of Turkey, dangerous of change in national identity perception, which they believe that all the negative changes on those issues were arisen in order to satisfy E.U’s inquiries. AKP belives that, access to the E.U will bring economic welfare and support to make social reforms. However, expeditious attitude of E.U considered as a threat by MHP and CHP because the E.U may sometimes impose its thoughts directly to the current government without respecting Turkey’s independency.. It is clear that the contention between the political parties and between E.U and Turkey have negative effects on Turkey’s economical and social situation.

According to the Huntington, second condition is that the public should agree to change. Polls conducted in Turkey about the access to the E.U.are clearly shows that there are lots of people th believes that the EU membership will not be good for Turkey. Turkish citizens’ main concern is religious belief of E.U member countries. Turks indicates that the EU is the first threat to Turkish Citizens’ religious belief and it is also very big threat for national security because of its geopolitical location. Therefore, it is clear that Turk’s do not support the government pro-European activities. Also some public surveys which is not done by Pure Research Center in Turkey indicates that majority of the rank of Turks which voted against accession to theE.U should alarm the E.U.

Third and last condition of Huntington requires that the host civilization should welcome the change. E.U called as an Christian Club by some non-member or midle east countries and ninety percent of the Turks are Muslims and it creates concerns and question marks on the head of both E.U and Turks. Another important point which may effects the decision of the host civilization is growing of Turkey’s young population. It is not only important because of the economical and social aspect, young population of Turkey also may affcet the voting power of the Turkey if it will become a member of the E.U because voting rights in E.U. as a member is directly related with the population of the member country. In the integration process Turkey may face with worrying points. Such as, Turkey’s population, economic condition, majority’s religion and geographic location. The hosts worry about growing population of Turkey since Turkey will has voting power and it has important role on decision making process. Because Germany has the host crowded population and if Turkey would be a member of the E.U., it will come after Germany. Also its young population will cause economic problems.

As a conclusion, In my opinion to fulfill the conditions specified by Huntington as a terms of shift from one civilization to the other is very difficult for Turkey because Turkey should face with and solve the problems like population, social and human rights, unemployment etc. It is difficult to satisfy all concrete requirements and conditions of the E.U but the most difficult issue is to force E.U to fulfill its obligations that it was undertook in the past and has not fulfilled yet.