Turkey and EU enlargement: problems and prospects

Turkey accession to European Union (EU) has always been a contentious issue. Huge volumes of research papers, articles and journals have been published and contributed to this discourse. However, this discourse is still on and need, in my opinion, more contributions. The objective of my dissertation work is to explore the delay in accession process and build strong argument for the Turkey permanent membership. With this idea and intention I have argued that Turkey accession process should be speed up and should be rewarded with full membership. Latter, I have demonstrated that Turkey with the series of reforms is showing commitment and prepared for full membership and its underlying responsibilities. The core ideas of this paper are that Turkish European identities is no different than European identities, despite of the cultural differences and Islam. Also, it will enhance, Turkey can play decisive role in changing perception of Muslim fraternity in the Middle East and finally, Turkey with vibrant economy, and military power can greatly contributes to EU aspiration to emerge as global actor.