ABSTRACT
The accession process of Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) provided a laboratory for scholars to explore Europeanization in candidate states in detail and the magnetic impact of the European Union (EU) pulling these countries to itself has been identified as the primary driving force of transformation in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Such magnetic pull of the EU in its neighbourhood demonstrated the transformative power of the EU motivating states in its near abroad to transform themselves to a European model. As the least likely area for reform, minority rights constitute a challenging issue for the EU’s transformative power. Minorities in Turkey can be grouped on the basis of their religious, ethnic and linguistic differences from the majority. EU–Turkey relations endured ups and downs for decades due to a number of issues such as the divisions among EU member states on the prospective membership of Turkey and military interventions experienced in Turkey several times.
