Abstract
Turkey, with its 72 million inhabitants, became a layman state since Atatürk (Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was a Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, writer, and founder of the Republic of Turkey) and tried to follow the EU's vision of human rights, culture and economy.
Since 1960s, European states have promised that Turkey will enter the EU and negotiations started. Turkey since 2002 is governed by the AKP and in 2005 Angela Merkel, the German Vice chancellor proposed a “privileged partnership” with the Turkish country.
The debate can be summed up by this question:
Could a so-called “privileged partnership” be a substitute for full membership or is not it appropriated to the current Turkish situation?
The idea of “privileged partnership” was developed by Angela Merkel in 2005 and then supported by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, a former French president and Nicolas Sarkozy. The EU and Turkey are linked with a long history of friendly relations, and it is necessary for both countries to develop this close relationship, for security and geo-strategic reasons. But, this close partnership should not overtax the EU's economic capacities, which some argue will be the case when inducted completely into the EU.
