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

III.3. Restoration of the Relations
Almost four years later, the dialogues had been started in diplomacy level and Turkey applied for the full membership of the EEC in 1987. After two years, however, the European Commission declared its opinion on December 18, 1989 that “it couldn't accept a new member before completing process of its own internal market (1992) and necessity provisions in terms of economical, social and political developments should be fulfilled before Turkey's pre-accession”.²⁰ Furthermore, “instead of full membership, the Commission suggested the operation of the Association Agreement and the realization of a customs union as foreseen by the 1963 Ankara Treaty and the 1970 Additional Protocol”.²¹ However, both economical and political reasons of the Commission were not only the obstacles in front of Turkey for opening accession negotiations straight away. The tension between Greece and Turkey was also a question as well as the situation in Cyprus.
The following year, on 7 June 1990, in order to accelerate the relations and cooperation, European Commission submitted a Cooperation Package, so-called the Matutes Package that was applicable in all areas “including completion of the customs union, the resumption and intensification of financial cooperation, the promotion of industrial and technological cooperation and the strengthening of political and cultural ties”.²² Nevertheless, the Council rejected this package due to Greece's objection.
During the Copenhagen summit of the European Council in June 1993, a set of criteria for the membership was introduced that was basically summarized by Müftüler-Baç²³ as:

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  stable institutions governing democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights and protection of minorities;
  
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  the existence of functioning market economy and the capacity to cope with competitive pressure; and
  
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  the ability to take on the obligations of membership including adherence to the principles of political, economic and monetary union.
  

Turkey has to fulfil these criteria for its accession process of the EU membership.
Preliminary dialogues and preparations were initiated in 1994 and completed on December 1995 for joining the customs union. The agreement was signed between the parties and it was entered into force on 1 January 1996.²⁴ “The level of integration between the Parties reached an advanced point with the Customs Union and the next goal of Turkey became the membership to the EU, as indicated in Ankara Agreement (Article 28).”²⁵ It is very important to highlight in here that Turkey joined to the customs union without becoming a member of the European Union.
On the report "Agenda 2000", which was adopted on 15 July 1997, Turkey was excluded from the enlargement process by the European Commission. This situation was unexpected and not satisfactory from the Turkish point of view; because the Commission re-presented “the same economical and political arguments against Turkey”²⁶ without mentioning about possibility of full membership. Turkey was not pleased from the results because of considering discrimination compared with the countries which had also applicant status. For this reason, Turkish authorities announced on 5^th of December that Turkey was no longer willing to discuss about the issues that related with Greece, Cyprus and human rights.²⁷ After a few days, in Luxembourg, the Summit of Heads of State and Government took place and declared the candidate countries in the context of EU enlargement; but Turkey was not referred as one of them, namely a candidate country status was not given. Instead, they made a decision to set a European Strategy “to prepare Turkey for accession by bringing it closer to the European Union in every field”.²⁸ In 1998, European Strategy for Turkey was prepared by the European Commission that introduced several criteria based on some obligations in Maastricht Treaty (1993), such as political and economical in the first instance, for the European Union membership. Furthermore, since 1998, “Progress Reports” have been published at regular intervals on an annual basis.
On the first year of implementation of the new currency “Euro” (1999), the mutual negotiations between Turkey and the Union began to produce results. In European Council Summit in Helsinki, Turkey acquired the candidacy status. Additionally, the Council decided to provide same criteria and supports to Turkey as other candidate states which were preparing for the full membership.