SULE TOKTAS
BULENT ARAS
The Turkish state pursues a two-pronged policy toward minori-ties. First, Turkey follows a pseudo-conciliatory policy in responding to Euro-pean Union (EU) pressures and demands. Turkey presents an image of aresponsible state in fulfilling the EU criteria, while in fact trying to prevent any significant change the accession process might encourage in its traditional minority regime. For example, the Turkish state points out its cooperation with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), but this cooperation is mainly motivated by fighting against intolerance and discrimi-nation toward Muslims. Second, the Turkish state employs restrictive measures and political maneuvers in minority rights in the domestic scene. The aim of and political maneuvers in minority rights in the domestic scene. The aim of the Turkish policy is to stay within the boundaries of the Treaty of Lausanne and prioritize national security considerations over minority issues. However,Turkeyʼs traditional minority regime falls short even of the requirements of Lausanne, while bringing the Lausanne legal framework to the fore against the EU demands and pressures. The Turkish state follows this dual policy of dle the whole process through diplomatic negotiation and domestic legal and political measures. The minority issue we discuss below reflects this attitude.
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C ONTINUITIES AND B OTTLENECKS IN EU–T URKEY RELATIONS

Turkey–EU relations have not followed a harmonious pattern; on the contrary,they have consisted of ups and downs—sometimes dominated by mutual shar-ing of common concerns, and sometimes fluctuating with conjectural events in SULE TOKTAS is an associate professor of international relations at Kadir Has University. She has published Immigration to Turkey and various articles on international migration, womenʼs issues,and ethnic and religious minorities in Turkey. BULENT ARAS is a professor of international relations at Istanbul Technical University. He has co-authored Syria and Afghanistan: Dilemmas of Security and Democracy and various articles on Turkish foreign policy and Middle Eastern issues in leading journals.[1]