KEYWORDS: TURKEY - EUROPEAN UNION - INTEGRATION - REGIONAL INFLUENCE

The addition of Turkey to the European Union has been a polarizing issue. Never has the EU's expansion solicited so many different reactions, even radical opposition. This candidature has stirred up unexamined issues of identity, values, borders, and the democratic deficit of Europe.

These debates give us strong warnings about the unacknowledged issues of a European construct founded on cultural and geographical assumptions. They reveal the hidden nature of the question of immigration and of Islam at the heart of the Union.

Like a reverse mirror, the Turks’ views of Europe and their disenchantment in the face of European reluctance forms the original angle of this work, which offers an analysis of the crossroads between European and Turkish viewpoints.

At a time when Turkey is ready to play a new role as a regional power, it is up to European governments to recognize the opportunites, along with the risks, of winning or losing a full partnership with Turkey.

The authors: Bruno Cautrès is a researcher CNRS at Cevipof-Centre of Political Research at Sciences Po, and teaches at Sciences Po. Nicolas Monceau is an associate researacher at Pacte Laboratory (CNRS) at the Political Science Institute in Grenoble and teaches at l’Université de Fribourg.