ABSTRACT
The Turkish experience of democratization reforms goes back to nineteenth century Ottoman rule and hence provides a rich case in its historicity. However, the impact of external actors in the Turkish example has recently begun to be discussed primarily with respect to the country’s relations with the EU and its attempts to fulfill the Copenhagen criteria in order to start accession negotiations for EU membership. Here our focus will be on the most recent wave of reforms during the 1991 to 2006 period. The prospect of EU accession, initiated at the Helsinki Summit of 1999, provides the most recent and crucial turning point in Turkey’s democratic reform path. After the granting of candidacy at Helsinki, in order to fulfill the Copenhagen political and economic criteria necessary to begin accession negotiations, Turkey undertook various political reforms over a wide field encompassing most particularly human rights and freedoms, the judicial system, legislative and administrative capacity, corruption and strengthening of civilian control over the military. This chapter undertakes a critical assessment of these reforms, within the EUCLIDA theoretical framework.
