The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of Turkey’s European Union (EU) candidature on its foreign policy towards its non-EU neighbours, namely Iran and Syria. It argues that EU conditionality and adaptation pressure for the convergence and alignment of Turkey’s authoritarian political regime to the EU acquis communautaire have produced unintended outcomes in Turkey’s foreign policy towards its non-EU neighbours, in addition to the intended outcomes in Turkey’s domestic politics. To investigate these phenomena, this study poses the following questions: how, to what extent and in what direction has Turkey’s foreign policy changed towards its non-EU neighbours during the country’s EU candidature, and how has Turkey’s EU candidature to the EU played a role in this? This study utilises Europeanization, and the rational choice and historical versions of the new institutionalist theory as its theoretical framework. Interview and case study methods were employed to answer this research question, and triangulation and the creation of counterfactual scenarios were used to substantiate the validity of the study’s findings and interpretation.
The findings indicate that, first, Turkish foreign policy towards its non-EU neighbours has undergone a deep transformation from being merely security-oriented disengagement to politically and economically-oriented engagement. Secondly, although 1) due to the nature of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), the literature on Europeanisation in the field of foreign policy primarily addresses socialisation and experimental learning related to the impact of the EU on member and/or non-member states’ foreign policies, and 2) due to the nature of EU-Turkey relations, the literature on the impact of the EU on Turkey’s foreign policy mostly focus on Turkey’s foreign policy towards Turkey’s EU neighbours and primarily addresses EU conditionality and adaptation pressure in the field of foreign policy as it is related to the impact of the EU on Turkey’s foreign policy, the findings of this research show that, in fact, EU conditionality and adaptation pressure in the fields of democracy and the rule of law, and in the economic realm, has unintentionally left a very visible influence on Turkish foreign policy towards Turkey’s non-EU neighbours by: (a) changing the institutions, institutional structures and institutional power relations, (b) empowering the governmentand civil society against the military–bureaucratic elites in political decision making, (c) accomplishing political and economic stability and growth, (d) increasing respect for and protection of religious and minority rights, and transferring domestic religious and minority issues into the realm of normal politics, and thus (e) changing the institutions, interests, preferences and demands that are involved in foreign policy-making towards Turkey’s non-EU neighbours
