Turkey and the EU. The reasoning of the French Government's opposition against the accession (PDF)

Essay from the year 2014 in the subject Politics - Region: Western Europe, , language: English, abstract: The accession of Turkey into the European Union is one of the most controversial subjects in the process of the enlargement of the EU. Especially in Germany the possible integration of Turkey is an issue that is discussed on a broad scale in the society, since a large part of the German population is of Turkish descent and the aftereffects of a closer relation with Turkey seems to raise personal interest among most of Germany's citizens. The current unrest and rioting in Istanbul along with the censorship of certain media like the internet-based social networking service Twitter by the administration of Recep Tayyip Erdogan added its share to the futility of an acceleration to the process of Turkeys integration in the European Union.

After the visit of the German President Joachim Gauck, a number of German politicians pointed out, that Turkey under its current government is not going to become a member state of the EU. One could argue that the current situation in Turkey makes it indeed uneasy to imagine it to become a stable member that fulfills the rules of accession. However, Turkey was granted the rank of a potential member of the European Union almost fifteen years ago. Since then, the opposition against it didn't only rally in Germany. In this essay the author examines the major reasons for the resistance among the French people to Turkeys integration.