The Impacts of Republic of Cyprus EU Membership on Turkey’s EU Candidacy Process

Absztrakt (kivonat)

The island of Cyprus is a geostrategically important island which is located in the Meditteranean sea. It has been a home for many civilizations throughout history. The island came under the Ottoman rule in the 16th century. After World War II The Republic of Cyprus was established with Turkey, Greece and Britain took part as guarantor states which did not last long due to the act of violence on the island. Starting from the 20th century Cyprus has been the center of a European Union, Turkey, and Greece triangle. Turkey has been pursuing EEC (and later on EU) membership since 1959. But the membership process has become chaotic since the Republic of Cyprus, which is now only represented by the GCASC since the Turkish Cypriots could not attend to their governmental duties, applied for EU membership on behalf of the whole island in 1990 and got accepted in 2004. Turkey was declared as a candidate country in 1999 and membership negotiations started in 2005. In the years that have passed since then, the Cyprus issue has continued to exist and has taken its place in the reports as one of the issues that the European Union considers as an obstacle in Turkey's accession negotiations. The main goal of this study is to examine the extent of the impact of membership of the Republic of Cyprus to the European Union on Turkey's accession negotiations with the European Union. Also, this research aims to analyze the legal basis of the membership process of the Republic of Cyprus and the effectiveness of the EU methods for the solution of the Cyprus ıssue will be examined to support the main goal.