How the EU Membership Has Affected Turkey’s Political Environment

This thesis aims to analyze and argue how the membership process for the European Union has affected Turkish politics and to what outcome it led Turkey. Starting with the EU candidacy, Turkey has gone through radical political changes, most of which have proved negative given the history of the country. Such changes included the weakening of the Turkish Army, strengthening of Kurdish separatism, the rise of Islamic-oriented parties, and Turkey’s political shift away from western-orientation. First, the EU and its history will be analyzed analyzed as a way to illustrate the requirements for Turkey as a candidate nation. Afterwards, I will analyze the fundaments of the modern Republic of Turkey that consists of Atatürk’s ideals. The analysis helps the reader better grasp the political status quo in Turkey to make it possible to understand how the EU reforms can in fact lead Turkey to a different direction. The remainder of the thesis consists of chapters that contain the political changes as a result of the EU membership process and the arguments for those changes