The Eu's democratic conditionality in Turkey's political reform process [Türkiye'nin siyasi reform sürecinde avrupa birliǧpnin demokratik koşulluluǧu]

European union (eu) closely monitors the democratization process of candidate countries through its democratic conditionality based on specific accession criteria. the paper examines the main elements of political conditionality,and the process of conditionality candidate countries had gone through in previous enlargement waves. the effect of eu's democratic conditionality on turkey's political reform process is analyzed in three periods,namely pre-helsinki period,post-helsinki period and the period after the opening of the negotiations on 3 october 2005. the political reforms are summarized to figure out the effectiveness of eu's conditionality. the paper shows that eu's political conditionality has been most effective during the period from turkey had been granted candidate status until the negotiations had started. after the start of the negotiations,the eu's leverage in the political reform process and its credibility have been weakened as a result of stricter conditions brought before turkey and the increasing political intervention of certain member states.