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Despite growing critical literature on external funding, the link between EU funding to Turkish civil society organisations (CSOs) and their depoliticisation remains understudied. This article fills this gap. This article explores EU funds in Turkey and shows the incentives it creates for a depoliticised civil society. Drawing on an original set of interviews with 45 CSOs, this article analyses how Turkish CSOs interact with EU funding and how this support impacts on Turkish civil society. This article argues that EU funding's short-term, activity-based, measurable outcome and visibility-oriented structure contributed to the depoliticisation of those CSOs benefited from EU funds.

The professionalization effect of foreign funding is one of the prominent issues in the critical literature on donor/recipient relations. Despite growing attention on this topic, the link between European Union (EU) funding to Turkish civil society organizations (CSOs) and their professionalization remain understudied. This article fills this gap. Drawing on an original set of interviews with leaders of 45 CSOs in Turkey, this article finds that EU-funded projects have not led to the professionalization of Turkish CSOs. This article suggests several reasons for this and also discusses the broader impact of EU funds in relation to CSO’s professionalization.

The twists and turns of Turkish foreign policy under Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule have been a matter of interest not only in the scholarly literature, but also in common discourse. This article traces the unfolding of this policy in Turkey’s neighbourhood and in relation to its quest for EU membership, particularly since 2006, and also discusses the milestones that have been shaping it. Drawing upon the categories of change Charles Hermann identified, this article illustrates the magnitude and direction of change in Turkish foreign policy during this period and critically evaluates its implications for this policy today.

‘Golden goose’ of European integration for some time now, EU’s civil society policy displays a vivid example during Turkey’s accession. This article queries the impact of this policy in the Turkish context, ultimately showing its limited extent on Turkish civil society organizations (CSOs) and illuminating its real constraints in the Turkish context. Drawing on interviews with CSOs, this article argues that the EU could not accomplish its expected objectives set within its civil society policy in Turkey due to its neo-Tocquevillian conceptualization that overlooks at the constraints on civil society actors and disregards civil society’s political nature and its CSOs’ autonomous character.

This chapter addresses how civil society organizations in Turkey respond to, and how the Turkish context mediates, the instruments of EU civil society policy by looking into the thematic field analyses of in-depth interviews conducted with civil society organizations and the transformation of the legal and institutional environment in Turkey.