The other side of the coin: the growing opposition in turkey against to the european union accession

III. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE RELATIONS BETWEEN REPUBLIC OF TURKEY AND THE EUROPEAN UNION
The interest as well as the evident effects of Turks to Europe are based on the Ottoman Empire. By signing the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699 and then the Pasarovitz in 1718, a legal dialogue – within the written documents which were based on the Peace of Westphalia (1648) in the case of the principles of diplomacy and representation – started between the Europeans and Turks.⁵ In course of time, their diplomacy level had been reverberated also to their economical relations and social structure.
Westernizing, also called as Europeanization, started in 19th century in Ottoman Empire. Together with the reforms on Turkish law during the 19^th century, Turks began to adapt the European understanding of Roman law system. After the proclamation the Republic of Turkey in 1923 under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Romanization process of law system was completed by adopting the Civil Code in 1926 that was based on the Swiss Civil Code.⁶ By choosing the European model of governance structure, Turkey became the only pluralist secular democracy in the Muslim world.
The most obvious example of bringing the pluralist democracy to Turkey could be seen on the women rights, especially in the case of the right to elect and be elected. Participation of women in the elections of local administrations (municipal elections) was provided for the first time in 1930 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Through constitutional regulations in 1934, Turkish women had the right to elect and be elected. In accordance with these improvements, women participated in the General Election of Representatives (parliament elections) in 1935. As the result of this participation, seventeen women became the members of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi – TBMM). In 1936, some deputies left their position. For this reason, an interim election was held to choose the new members of the parliament with resulted in being one more woman deputy in parliament and the number of women increased to 18 in TBMM.⁷ In other words, women in Turkey obtained the right to vote and to stand for election earlier than some European countries such as France (1944), Italy (1945), Croatia (1945)⁸, Greece (1952) and Switzerland (1971). (Seppälä, 2004: 34)
Turkey has always given the greatest importance to develop its relations with the European countries and continued to be a significant ally in the international platform by joining the United Nations (UN) in 1945⁹, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1952¹⁰, the Council of Europe (COE) in 1949¹¹, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 1961¹² and being a part of the Western alliance during the Cold War. In order to draw up one level in cooperation with the European countries, when the Treaties of Rome entered into force and the European Economic Community (EEC) was established in 1958, Turkey made its first application for association to the EEC on 31 July 1959.
After 54 years, Republic of Turkey is still a candidate country. Therefore, it is important to analyze the historical background, and ups and downs of the relations between the Turkey and the EU in the case of main the events such as major steps taken and progress made. For this reason; to clarify the details and determine the reasons of formed ups and downs of the relations, the historical background between the EU and Turkey is examined in four sub-chapters.
As the first subchapter, the Legal Basis of the Relations focuses on the beginning of the relations and the importance of the first agreement which was signed between the EEC and Republic of Turkey. Secondly, the Deterioration of the Relations points out reasons of the worsening changes by taking into account the political situation in Turkey from 1975 to 1983. The third subchapter is the Restoration of the Relations which analyses the period from the second half of 1980s to 2000 by considering the Customs Union and new hopes for Turkey. Finally, the New era in the Relations presents the recent events to elucidate today's situation of Turkey in terms of the EU accession.