Cyprus Problem And Turkey's Accession To The Eu Study

After the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923, the successive governments have taken" westernization, secularization" as an unshakable basic national policy, positively pursued in Europe. In the context of the Cold War, Turkey's geo-strategic position with the Europe, the Middle East, and the Soviet Union make the EC welcomed Turkey, the bilateral relations between the EC and turkey have developed smoothly in the early days. Since 1970's, the EC adjusted its attitude towards Turkey's accession to the EC, Turkey's poor record of democracy and human rights together with its apparent "alien" culture system allows the EU adopted a "delay" policy in Turkey's accession.As to EU-Turkey relations, the emergence of the Cyprus problem has been exacerbated the noncommittal relations.Cyprus problem is one of the most difficult international problems after World WarⅡ. It is not only confined to the disputes between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots on the island, but also contained competitions of Greece, Turkey, the Soviet Union as well as the United States in the eastern Mediterranean, involving huge national interest of the United Kingdom, Turkey, Greece and the United States. With the continued deterioration of the Cyprus problem, this troubled Greece-Cyprus-Turkey triangle finally formed. Since 1980's, the EU began its involvement in the Cyprus problem especially after the formal accession of Greece, and hoped the accession process of Cyprus and Turkey will bring a successful solution to the Cyprus problem. However, the EU action by combining Turkey's accession process with the solution of the Cyprus problem failed to force Turkey to change its stubborn policy on the Cyprus issue, but marked the question of Cyprus more complicated, at the same time, the EU-Turkey relations have also been repeatedly challenged.The division Cyprus joined the EU in the May 1,2004 declared the failure of the EU catalytic policy. The Republic of Cyprus within the EU has not only become another firmly opposed power to Turkish membership, but also constitutes the first obstacle of Turkey's accession process which it may have to cross. The European Union set a precondition for the start of Turkey's accession negotiations in October 2005: recognition of the Republic of Cyprus. In December 2006, because of Turkey's Non-performance of the "Additional Protocol" which contains provisions of opening its ports and airports to the Cyprus Republic, the EU partly frozen Turkey's accession negotiations. Nowadays, the Cyprus disputes between Turkey and the EU has troubled the current accession negotiations of Turkey.In Turkey's road to the European Union over 50 years, the Cyprus issue as a persistent factor in the EU-Turkey relations, the importance and influence are constantly enhanced. The EU has been carefully planned to force Turkey change its hard-line stance on the Cyprus problem, however, the Cyprus problem is Turkey's national cause, related to Turkey's national honor, even through the Turkish Government's attitude on this issue more than a loose, and it is also unable to make too many concessions. However, it is certain that Turkey's accession process will not be able to bypass this obstacle in Cyprus, left the Cyprus problem unresolved to the last minute is unwise to any parties involved. This EU-Turkey-Cyprus triangle for now trends no settlement, the game will continue. In this paper, the theory of the national interests, the game theory and interdependence theory method has been taken to analysis the interaction between the Cyprus problem and the EU-Turkey relations, this will not only help us understand the complexity of the Cyprus problem, but also help us to understand the European Union's policy change towards Turkey's accession process, in addition to help us better grasp the development trend of the Cyprus problem and the EU-Turkey relations.