Insight Turkey
Insight Turkey
Challenging ideas
On Turkish politics and International affairs

Author

Nilüfer Karacasulu

Dokuz Eylül University
Nilüfer Karacasulu
EU-Turkey Relations in the Context of the Middle East after the Arab Spring*
October 1, 2014
This paper discusses EU-Turkey relations with a specific reference to regional developments in the Middle East after the Arab Spring. In the last decade, the Turkish government has tried to intensify Turkey’s influence in the region. However, increasing activism in Turkey’s foreign policy toward the region was not accompanied by a parallel commitment in its relations with the EU. In the meantime, the EU was caught unprepared by the Arab Spring in the middle of the Euro-zone crisis, and now its strategic interests are being threatened by regional instability. Both sides have been faced with the task of adapting their policies to the political transitions in the region. After an analysis of their contemporary regional policies, this article argues that even though their strategies are not totally in line with each other, Turkey follows the same objectives that the EU neighborhood policy has pursued towards the Middle East.

We use cookies in a limited and restricted manner for specific purposes. For more details, you can see "our data policy". More...