Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
TURKISH STUDIES, cilt.15, sa.2, ss.283-302, 2014 (SSCI)
Turkey is a negotiating candidate for the EU membership. Though the accession negotiations between Turkey and the EU continue in the official sense, in reality, the relations are in a deadlock. It is often argued that Turkey-EU relations have entered a new era since January 2013, and new optimistic comments have emerged. This paper argues that there exists a pull-push balance in the accession process for the EU that normally attracts candidates and makes them more vulnerable to the EU conditions. The success of the political transformation of eastern European states relied to a large extent on the balanced pull-push accession processes. It is argued here that this balance for Turkey has been deteriorated and this fact has made the EU ineffective in transforming Turkish politics and polity. Therefore, this paper argues for the re-establishment of the balance to improve and normalize Turkey-EU relations.