ABSTRACT
Turkey’s EU candidacy has been studied at great length from the perspective of international relations. The main focus of such studies is how international factors such as the Cyprus issue, relations with Greece, security, and regional balances have influenced the relationship.1 Internal factors and processes have been largely neglected. In the main theories of European integration, however, domestic politics rather than international relations have become increasingly important. First, domestic politics matters, because ‘national’ preferences of member states are influential in the evolution of European integration. Second, more recently, it appears that ‘Europeanization’ has a considerable impact on national political systems. The latter is also relevant for candidate countries and is studied in the context of Central and East European countries (CEECs), focusing particularly on the responses of political parties to Europeanization as well as ‘Euro-scepticism’ and its impact on party systems. Turkey has rarely been studied in this particular context.
