The analysis of Turkey’s tendency to converge to the European Union from the perspective of geopolitics

Abstract

ABSTRACT Geopolitical isolation can be defined as an increase in the degree of deterioration of a country due to a decrease of its systemic relations with other countries. Perceptual isolation emerges from the perception of threat from the neighbours. Turkey is an instance of perceptual isolation since its geographical infrastructures are not satisfactory for developing its relations with its neighbours. In order to overcome this situation, the leaders of Turkey have taken a number of measures among which one can specifically refer to the policy of zero tension with the neighbours as well as the search for strategic partners from beyond the neighbouring countries. Study of Turkey’s convergence to the European Union is the central idea of the current research. The purpose of this study is to answer the question that how the geopolitical isolation of Turkey has affected its attempts to join the European Union. The hypothesis that the intensity of Turkey’s geopolitical isolation, along with other interests, has had an increasing impact on the efforts of Turkish statesmen toward convergence to the European Union and that these two variables are directly proportional to each other will be investigated. This research has been conducted with a historical analytical-explanatory method.