Reforming History: Turkey’s Legal Regime and Its Potential Accession to the European Union

Abstract

For the past decade, Turkey and the European Union (EU) have had serious discussions about Turkey's possible entrance into the EU. The intensity of these talks, however, has always been tempered by Turkey's extremely questionable human rights practices. The most marked aspects of this record are the country's treatment of the Kurdish minority and its quashing of political dissent through the heavyhanded use of its legal system. In this note, I will argue that, despite Turkey's increasing political and economic stature in the world, it will not be able to gain entry into the EU until it is able to sufficiently address these human rights problems to the satisfaction of the EU and the international community in general.