Turkey and The European union: Differentiated integration from a security angle

Differentiated integration is a theory that explains the European integration process by looking at different integration types and levels of different countries to the European Union. Regarding this theory, not only members, but also non-members can have some amount of integration to the Union. Being a candidate country, Turkey has a differentiated integration to the European Union in terms various different areas of cooperation. As the European Union and Turkey has a strong cooperation in terms of security and defence since the Cold War and Turkey’s being a member to NATO, security and defence is one of the areas of cooperation that Turkey has an opt in to. Turkey’s opt in can be seen through institutional ties and the operations and missions that are conducted under the flag of the European Union. The thesis will examine these institutional ties between Turkey and the European Union to uncover to level of Turkish inclusion to the security and defence cooperation of the European Union, and will analyze civilian and military operations and missions of the European Union to show Turkish contribution to European security and defenc