The current state of EU-Turkey relations and implications for Czech foreign policy
The current state of EU-Turkey relations and implications for Czech foreign policy

Author(s): Pelin Ayan Musil
Subject(s): Environmental and Energy policy, Government/Political systems, International relations/trade, Comparative politics, Migration Studies, Asylum, Refugees, Migration as Policy-fields
Published by: Ústav mezinárodních vztahů
Keywords: EU-Turkey relations; Czech foreign policy; global human rights sanctions regime; immigration; climate change;
Summary/Abstract: The Czech Republic should approach the EU-Turkey relationship from the perspective of how to bring back the EU’s democratizing influence over Turkey because the decline of democracy in the country is conducive to its unilateral and disruptive foreign policy in areas that are of strategic importance to the EU. The EU has recently adopted a global human rights sanctions regime that targets autocratizing regimes responsible for human rights violations, which can potentially include Turkey. Yet, some softer mechanisms contributing to democratization, such as the strengthening of the linkage between autonomous civil society organizations (CSOs) in Turkey and their European counterparts, are also worth considering as a foreign policy tool. The Czech Republic’s concern about the decline of democracy and rule of law worldwide makes it ideal that its foreign policy should employ such a soft strategy toward Turkey. It can motivate its own CSOs to increase their linkages with the CSOs that have managed to remain autonomous within Turkey’s polarized domestic setting. To this end, the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs can consider including Turkey as one of the priority countries in its Transition Promotion Program. The potential transnational cooperation between the Czech CSOs and the autonomous CSOs in Turkey can focus on less controversial issues for Turkey that still, however, constitute urgent challenges for both the Czech Republic and Turkey. Immigration and climate change are two such exemplary issues.

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