Author

Onur Can Ozer

Degree Type

Honors Capstone Project

Date of Submission

Spring 5-1-2012

Capstone Advisor

Hossein Bashiriyeh

Honors Reader

Jerry Evensky

Capstone Major

International Relations

Capstone College

Citizenship and Public Affairs

Audio/Visual Component

no

Capstone Prize Winner

no

Won Capstone Funding

no

Honors Categories

Social Sciences

Subject Categories

Eastern European Studies | International and Area Studies | Other International and Area Studies

Abstract

Turkey, with a population of nearly 74 million and a strategic location opening up to Europe, Middle East, North Africa, and East Asian markets, has been one of the fastest growing markets in the world in the present day. Having recorded a GDP growth with a level of 11% in the first half of 2011, Turkey was regarded to have the fastest growing industry in Europe. Turkey’s accession talks have been around since 1950s and have been official when Turkey became an associate member of the EU in 1963. Although Turkey has made a remarkable progress in the last decade, EU still hesitates to accept Turkey’s full time membership. In this essay, I have attempted to analyze the possible financial consequences of Turkey’s accession into the EU.

In order to complete a successful study, I have divided the project into four sections. In the first section, Summary, I have collected facts from the authorized European Union websites and empirical studies towards which my assessment will be given in the coming parts of the project. In the Evaluation section I started reviewing the facts and the approaches of the member states towards the Turkish accession based on these facts, such as positions and perspectives of the relevant countries within the EU market and their previous experiences with EU enlargements mainly emphasized on the 2007 EU expansion. The next section Analysis concentrates on the future based developments and information presented in the Evaluation and Summary sections. Therefore, in this section, I have attempted to illustrate the foreseen benefits and fears of both sides on Turkey’s accession. Finally, in the Conclusion section I present an answer to the question “whether Turkey should join the EU or the economic benefits and costs should be neglected” from Turkey’s perspective.

Since Turkey has been regarded as one of the fastest growing economies in G20 by OECD and IMF, Turkish accession into the EU and its financial implications may alter the political, economic and strategic balances of the world in many ways; therefore it can be claimed that including Turkey as a member state will not only be a hard decision made by the EU on political terms but also it will be a decision that will have crucial implications for the world economy.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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