THE EFFECTS OF PAST MILITARY INTERVENTIONS IN TURKEY ON THE EUROPEAN UNION RELATIONS

Abstract

Turkey has been in partnership with the European Union (EU) by the Ankara Agreement since 1964
and has aimed to become a full member since 1987. If it is considered that the membership process is
still continuing today, the question of why this process has lasted so long is the first question that
comes to mind in every environment where EU-Turkey relations are being questioned. Turkey fell
behind some states even though they applied after Turkey, that’s why it is not enough to explain this
delay by purely economic backwardness and / or religious differences. The occasional fluctuations in
Turkey’s political order and deviations in democracy have always complicated the EU-Turkey
relations.
For this reason, the coups and / or coup attempts in Turkey’s domestic politics have been major
problems that interrupted the political determination of both sides. The EU, which has always been
cautious about the membership of Turkey to the Union, preferred to keep the distance between Turkey
in general during the times of political instability because of the coups or coup attempts. Taking into
account that these developments which have caused Turkey’s political instability have been ignored in
the studies about EU-Turkey relations, so it is significant to analyze the effect of these issues to the
Union membership.
In this study, the coup attempt, which took place on July 15, 2016, and the past military interventions
in the Turkish political life and their impact on the EU-Turkey relations will be examined and the
study will try to reveal the effects of the results of the last coup attempt in Turkey regarding the future
of the process of EU membership.