ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the impact of Europeanisation on Turkey's Cyprus policies as a normative/political context where domestic actors are the principal creators of Europeanisation. The foreign and security policy (FSP) establishment in Turkey has always placed special emphasis on the geo-strategically vital location of the island of Cyprus for the country's defence. The fundamental objective of Turkey's new activism was to enable a solution before 1 May 2004, the date when the Greek Cypriot-controlled Republic of Cyprus (RoC) would become an EU member. Cyprus has been instrumental for Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (AKP) both to challenge the conventional state policies and to gain the needed support of the external actors most notably the EU and the US. Turkey also accepted that the UN Secretary General Annan would have the last say on the matters upon which Turkish and Greek Cypriot sides fail to compromise.