Human Rights and Democracy in Turkey and Their Implications for Political Ties with the European Union

This article seeks to study human rights conditions in Turkey and their repercussions for the EU accession negotiations. Turkey represents a strategically important country in the region, but Turkey’s relationship with the European Union has been accompanied with numerous challenges since Turkey applied for accession. Generally speaking, Turkey’s EU accession debates have been focused on the incompatibility of human rights conditions in Turkey with the EU standards. Since it took office, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has made efforts at creating the political and economic space needed for a democratic state, whereas EU suffers from lack of transparency concerning the minority rights and just stresses on the rights of a particular group of minorities. Apart from this, other issues that have delayed Turkey’s EU accession process include the Cyprus question, Kurdish nationalist activities, suppression of the 2013 demonstrations as well as the July 2016 coup attempt.