TurkeyÂ’s Accession to the European Union: Bridging the Divide between the EU governments and the European Public.

The relations between Turkey and the EU entered a new phrase on October 3, 2005 when the EU opened accession negotiations with Turkey. TurkeyÂ’s accession will be dramatically different than the previous waves of enlargement due to TurkeyÂ’s size, perceived cultural differences and the European publicÂ’s resistance to TurkeyÂ’s accession. How the European public perceives TurkeyÂ’s membership and its impact on Europe will determine whether Turkey will accede to the EU. This paper proposes that the legitimacy crisis that the EU and European governments currently face will deepen over the issue of TurkeyÂ’s membership, and that the European publicÂ’s resistance to Turkey and the EUÂ’s legitimacy crisis will carry a greater weight in determining TurkeyÂ’s accession than TurkeyÂ’s ability in meeting the EUÂ’s acquis. In this manner, TurkeyÂ’s membership does not only deserve scholarly attention for its value in terms of enlarging the EU, but also in terms of developing a new approach to policy making in the EU. This is theoretically significant in explaining European integration. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]