laura batalla »
Turkey’s wobbly democracy suffers yet another heavy blow
Had the attempt to overthrow the Turkish government succeeded the morning of July 16, it would have been the fourth coup in Turkey’s modern history. The last was that of General Kenan Evren, Chief
Read More »
TURKEY-EU RELATIONS: WHERE DO WE STAND TODAY?
Cover Photo: Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Herman van Rompuy, former President of the European Council, and José Manuel Barroso, former President of the European Commission (from left to right)
Read More »
“PODEMOS” AND 15-M: SOME REFLECTIONS ON TURKEY’S GEZI PARK PROTESTS
The overwhelming victory of eurosceptic and far-right parties in last week’s European Parliament elections made the headlines all over Europe. Spain is one of the few countries where no far-right party gained nationwide support.
Read More »
CYPRUS GOES TO THE POLLS: WILL THIS TIME ALSO BE DIFFERENT FOR TURKISH CYPRIOTS?
From May 22 to May 25, 400 million Europeans are called to vote for a new European Parliament (EP). This will be the third time that Cypriots will vote in the EP elections, ten
Read More »
TURKS IN BELGIUM: CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF MARRIAGE
The first Turkish ‘guest workers’ arrived in Belgium fifty years ago, following a bilateral recruitment agreement signed between Turkey and Belgium. Turkish migrant workers were supposed to stay in the country for a short
Read More »
EU-TURKEY RELATIONS IN 2014: GETTING OFF TO A GOOD START?
The most optimistic scenarios foresaw that Turkey could become an EU member around the year 2014 if Turkey’s domestic reforms were ambitious enough and the EU would have had a clear political will to
Read More »
EUROPE: BETWEEN HOPE AND DISILLUSION
For the fourth weekend in a row, Kiev’s Independence Square has become the main scenario for protests against the Ukrainian government’s decision to waive the signing of an association and free trade agreement with
Read More »
‘SINK OR SWIM’: TIME FOR A TWO-WAY RE-ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN TURKEY AND THE EU
EU-Turkey relations were put on hold before the summer awaiting approval by European Union (EU) Member States to restart negotiations on the basis of European Commission’s annual Turkey progress report. For the first time
Read More »
50 YEARS OF EU-TURKEY RELATIONS: TALK THE TALK AND WALK THE WALK
12th September 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of the Ankara Agreement, signed in 1963 in Ankara, hence its name. The agreement established an association between Turkey and the then European Economic Community (EEC) signaling
Read More »
EU-TURKEY RELATIONS AFTER GEZİ: ANOTHER HALT OR AN INCENTIVE TO REVIVE TURKEY’S MORIBUND ACCESSION PROCESS?
In my previous article I was to a certain extent optimistic over a positive breakthrough in EU-Turkey relations in 2013. However, the way Prime Minister Erdoğan and the AKP members (with a few exceptions)
Read More »
