Germany's main political parties' stances towards Turkey in the context of EU enlargement

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2013
Önem, Aysel
This study explores how the European Union Enlargement policy of Germany as represented by her main political parties, being the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (Social Democratic Party-SPD) and the Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands (Christian Democratic Union-CDU), has evolved after 1990 towards the case of Turkey. These two parties have been analysed because they have clear and different stances towards Turkey’s EU Accession process and they have witnessed and shaped watershed events of this process. The study does focus on the incumbencies of Helmut Kohl, Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel. Thereby it relies on both a thorough literature review and also on the screening of plenty of official documents. This study attempts to scrutinize the differences between the stance of the SPD and CDU towards Turkey’s EU Accession process. In this vein, it explores the interplay of political reforms and concepts of common culture, identity and history as variables in the altering attitudes of SPD and CDU. Further, this study rests on the ground that there have been breaking points in German support for EU Enlargement first emerged by the end of the Cold War and the concomitant new political climax and second with Turkey’s EU Accession process. Ultimately, this study sets on the ground that there has been a shift in Germany’s overt support for EU Enlargement which has been triggered by Turkey’s entrenched and problematic EU Accession Process.

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Citation Formats
A. Önem, “Germany’s main political parties’ stances towards Turkey in the context of EU enlargement,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2013.