Abstract

For over fifty years, Turkey has been in negotiations with the European Union about strengthening their alliance and possible accession. Throughout the decades, Turkey’s candidacy has been on the table, as suggestions for internal reform and progress have been demanded from the European Union in order to make Turkey more democratic and westernized. Yet, Turkey is still on the waiting list, as the number of member states has increased from fifteen to twenty-eight since 2004, with some member states being former USSR neighbors and republics. There are three basic criteria to become a member state within the European Union as discussed in article 49 of the Maastricht Treaty of 1992: a candidate country must be a nation-state, be geographically, culturally, and historically “European,” and respect the values of the European Union as laid out in article 2 of the Maastricht Treaty. This paper seeks to examine what it means to be “European” and if Europe needs to solidify a common identity for themselves, before questioning the European characteristics that Turkey possesses or lacks. It will explore the link between identity and European integration, and the negative consequences that are the causal results, like anti-immigration sentiments, Euroscepticism, and religious intolerance. Overall, this paper seeks to demonstrate the in-group identity versus the out-group identity that plagues Europe and Turkey’s relations and the barrier it creates for future integration.

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