What Turks and Kurds ‘Make of’ Europe

Abstract

There is now a fairly developed literature on the European Union (EU)’s conflict resolution roles, capacity and effectiveness in candidate, associate and neighbouring countries.¹ This literature focuses primarily on whether, and how, the EU can transform existing inter-state and intrastate conflicts in its periphery through its conditionality instrument. Since the mid-1990s, the EU has required many candidate countries to resolve their outstanding inter-state conflicts by signing peace treaties and submitting disputes to international adjudication prior to accession. Similarly, the emphasis onminority rights within the Copenhagen criteria has contributed in most cases to the resolution of intra-state disputes between different ethnic groups.