The EU's Membership Conditionality and ITS Legal Implications on Minority Rights in Turkey

İn the course of Turkey's EU accession phase its exclusivist constitutional mindset appears to pose the greatest challenge to realizing EU's minority rights standards. This research assesses Turkey's receptivity to assume the accession obligations as set out by the EU minority acquis. The thesis combines two areas of investigation: EU minority rights, as part of EU membership conditionality, on the one hand, and Turkey's minority rights records, on the other.

Despite having introduced a number of important positive legal refor-ms, Turkey has ultimately failed to adhere to European legal standards concerning minority rights. This is essentially due to the way in which Turkey defines nationality/citizenship and approaches the question of integrity/indivisibility of the State and its Nation. As such, domestic legal reforms, including their limited practical implications given pre-existing constitutional restraints are rigorously analysed. Equally, Turkey's steps to improve its minority rights records, taking into account broader European minority rights standards in light of relevant international legal standards, are examined in detail.