Publication

This paper describes how the EU’s decision to grant Turkey the status of a candidate for full-membership triggered an intense and polarized debate about the principle eligibility of Turkey as an EU member state. In the debate, religion has become an openly discussed issue with regard to the European dimension of Turkey. In posing three interrelated questions on Turkey’s EU reform process, the author argues that the country has engaged in a genuine reform process toward a pluralist democracy in whose course the relationship between religion and state in the country has been transformed. The paper states that in order to support such a process further, Europeans need to avoid historical prejudices and must acknowledge the strong European dimension of the predominantly Muslim country.