EU, Turkey, and Counter-Terrorism: Fighting the PKK and ISIS.

• Author: Ozturk, Bujra

By Ethem Ilbiz and Christian Kaunert

Edward Elgar, 2021, 240 pages, $120, ISBN: 9781800379565

EU, Turkey, and Counter-Terrorism: Fighting the PKK and ISIS, Ethem Ilbiz and Christian Kaunert conceptualize the impact of the European Union (EU) on counterterrorism measures of candidate states. The book primarily analyzes and empirically investigates the EU's influence on Turkiye's counter-terrorism policy. This book consists of six introductory chapters, in which the EU's impact on Turkish counter-terrorism policy is projected. It is essential to note that this work is an elevated, meticulous book with a substantial number of sources and references. The authors comprise a range of scientific research methodologies, including findings from semi-structured interviews with senior officials, former politicians in Turkiye, and EU officials in Brussels. Through examining one of the most important policy areas of European integration, this book is a critical reading for academics and students of European politics and policy, international relations, terrorism and security, and regional studies.

Although security has always been the Achilles heel for the creation of a borderless and united Europe, it occupied the entire EU security agenda immediately after the attacks of September 11, 2001. (1) It particularly took priority in an agenda previously dominated by "soft security" issues such as immigration, organized crime, drugs, and human trafficking. Because seeking a remedy for terrorism within the EU was not enough to eliminate terrorism, the EU incorporated counter-terrorism measures with neighboring states. Liberal democratic norms such as democracy, human rights, ethnic minority rights, and the rule of law evolved into principal instruments. The EU promoted them to prevent the negative consequences of internal security problems of states. This played an essential aspect in the EU's external dimension of counter-terrorism policy. However, Keohane argues that the EU has never clearly defined a counter-terrorism policy to be implemented in third countries. (2)

Because of its efforts to fight against ethnic, separatist, and jihadist terrorism, Turkiye has a special status regarding its candidacy to the EU. This book examines the concept of formal rule adoption by taking Turkiye as a case study. It argues that the EU has distributed its norms to Turkiye while transforming its democracy and is effective in influencing the changes in Turkiye's...