Turkey - EU Relations: Power, Politics and the Future

This book tries to introduce the untold story of the good aspects of the EU-Turkey relations from historical backgrounds to international impacts and from farming to cooperation against international terrorism. Turkey-EU relations are sometimes easy to observe but at the same time very complicated and difficult to understand. On the one hand the EU does not want to loose its long term ally's interest to join the union but on the other hand it does not want a vast Muslim country with huge young population to change EU's already struggling dynamics. The New Turkey on the other side does not want to let itself down by trying effortlessly to join the Union at any cost. It wants to join the Union but stay as a Democratic Muslim Turkey rather than a Democratic European Turkey. Both in Turkey and in EU though, members of the public have a very mixed feeling towards this relationship as their perceptions are shaped by the ideological interpretations of the leaders. For example people who travel Turkey or Europe have a completely different understanding of the relations then the ones who only hears it from politicians. Therefore mutual positive aspects are either underestimated or completely missed. This book aims to fill some of those missed gaps.