ABSTRACT
This chapter will investigate the institutional progress of Turkey between 1987 and 2007. After an introductory section on Turkey’s basic conditions with regard to military power, economic importance and the country’s cultural-normative background, the analysis investigates Ankara’s progress in institutional status in two periods. The first period covers the events from Turkey’s membership application in the year 1987 – by that time it already had an Association Agreement (level 2) – until December 1999, when it received candidate status (level 3) at the EU Council in Helsinki. The second period covers the events between December 1999 and December 2006. During that phase the European Commission started accession negotiations (level 4) in December 2005 but had to freeze the talks one year later.
