Analysis: Should Turkey Join The EU?

Should Turkey Join The EU? This article analyses this question and gives reasons for Turkey to be given a membership in the EU or not.

Introduction to Turkey – EU Relations

The question of Should Turkey Join The EU has been asked for a quite long time and the debate on this topic is still continuing. Turkey has striven to become the full member of the European Union (EU) since 1963 since they signed the association agreement known as Ankara Agreement (2015, para. 1) Some believe that Turkey should be involved in European Union whereas some other people think that Turkey should search for alternative unions. In this essay, I will answer the question “should Turkey be involved in European Union or not?” by using the pros and cons of involvement of Turkey in European Union. This topic can be discussed under many different subheadings.

Should Turkey Join The EU?

First of all, Turkey has reasons both for getting involved in European Union and for not being involved in European Union in terms of its geographic place. Firstly, Turkey is considered as a bridge that connects Europe and Asia. Secondly, İstanbul is one of the biggest cities of Europe and it is very important in terms of many different topics. If Turkey gets involved in European Union, it will give the union to increase their relationships with the places that are growing very fastly. If Turkey gives this opportunity to European Union, it will become a very important member of European Union and Turkey will be treated well by the union and we will get some benefits in return.

Secondly, if we consider the development of the countries in the European Union in terms of education, health and freedom, we can easily see that the European Union countries are in a very good situation in terms of these topics. It is very clear that Turkey is facing problems in terms of these topics and if we enter European Union, we can easily solve these problems and it will add a lot to our country. Even Turkey has been trying to become more free, we have very big problems in terms of freedom. For example, journalists are still being arrested in our country for their thoughts and Turkey does not have a stable education system, everything is changing in the education system every year and entering European Union can help our country with these problems which are very important for the development of our country.

Should Turkey Join The Eu Pros and Cons

Even we have very important reasons to enter European Union, there are also reasons for not being involved in European Union. As a country, the head of Aselsan states that we started producing our own helicopters, tanks and unmanned air vehicles. If we enter European Union, we will buy this technology for free and we will stop producing our technology on our own. This will result in a decline in the technological development of Turkey. Prof Dr. Ömer Özkan states that only 20 face transplants were done in all over the world and the 7 of them were done in Turkey (2012, para. 6), which is nearly the half of the total face transplants. We have our own satellite. We have done all these without being involved in European Union and we showed that Turkey can develop without entering European Union.

In addition to all these, there are 55 million unemployed people in the European Union countries but the unemployment rates in our countries are falling as time passes. The data of IMF shows that we are one of the countries that grow its national income the fastest. Our country is growing in a stable way. All these show that we can continue without being involved in the European Union.

There are some more ideas that support the fact that Turkey should enter European Union. Even the unemployment rates have been falling in our country compared to the last ten years, the citizens are not happy with the minimum wage. Journalist Ayşe Erdoğan says that if Turkey enters European union, the minimum wage level will increase and the citizens will be more happy with their wages (2015, para. 7). Also the conditions that the people are working are harder compared to the European Union Countries. If Turkey enters European Union, the people living in Turkey will start working under better working conditions. The new laws and regulations that will be brought with entering European Union will help the workers and the employers will not be able to force the workers to work under bad conditions.

Conclusion to Should Turkey Enter The EU?

All the information above shows that there are many pros and cons for Turkey to decide whether or not to be involved in the European Union. These reasons may be extended as well. As a result, it is very hard to tell Turkey should or should not be involved in the European Union. To express a precise opinion about Turkey’s entrance to European union, one should be a good economist or a sociology etc. as it requires a very good research about the results.

References

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Erdoğan, A. (2015, Şubat 04). TÜRKİYE-AB İLİŞKİLERİ:TÜRKİYE AVRUPA BİRLİĞİNE NEDEN GİRMELİ?

Manisa Denge: http://www.manisadenge.com/turkiye-ab-iliskileriturkiye-avrupa-birligine-neden-girmeli-makale,1100.html

Mahçupyan, E. (2014). Türkiye niçin AB’ye girmeli? Zaman Gazetesi taken from http://www.zaman.com.tr/yazarlar/etyen-mahcupyan/turkiye-nicin-ab-ye-girmeli_40481.html

Should Turkey be Involved in EU? (tarih yok). The Premier Online Debate Website: taken from http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-turkey-be-given-membership-in-the-eu

Valeri Modebadze, F. M. (2015). WHY TURKEY SHOULD JOIN THE EUROPEAN UNION:ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF TURKISH MEMBERSHIP . Journal of Liberty and International Affairs.