The European Union and Turkey: A Relationship of Frenemies

EU-Turkey relations have always been complex and multidimensional. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the geopolitical dimension has gained traction while Turkey does not feature in the revitalised EU enlargement policy. Tekin takes a geopolitical approach for entangling this relationship. The analysis of this chapter is guided by two respective questions: firstly, how geopolitics impacts on the status of the relationship, i.e. whether and in how far it can actually contribute to driving the two sides apart or drawing them together. Secondly, to what extent geopolitics impacts on the quality of the relationship, i.e. whether functional cooperation and transactionalism as the new rule of the game will remain dominant or whether the normative approach might regain the upper hand. Tekin concludes her analysis by discussing prospectives for future developments in EU-Turkey relations including which place Turkey can take in the so-called variable geometries of Europe.