Privileged Partnership : An Analysis of Privileged Partnership Proposal and Franco-German Discourses on Turkey's EU Membership

Turkish public opinion interpreted the announcement of the candidate status of their country as if they would be a member of the European Union in a couple of years. Surprisingly the same time range coincides with the beginning of a strong opposition to Turkey to the extent that Turkey should not be granted a full membership; instead an alternative should be arranged. This study aims to explore the reasons behind the privileged partnership proposal. For finding out whether Turkey is the 'ugly duckling' and why she has been alienated from the Union by proposing an alternative to full membership, this research will present why and on which grounds did French and German politicians had proposed privileged partnership through the analysis of three major French newspapers; namely Le Figaro, Le Monde and Liberation. On the other hand, it will present what the public opinion had understood and how they interpreted the reasons of the proposal through a survey with Turkish and non-Turkish participants.