This study is aimed at offering a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the roles, capacities, strategies and public discourses of core executive branches in the legal-institutional, political and normative adaptation to the European Union (EU) in response to the conditionalities imposed by the EU. More specifically the study focuses on the instrumentalization of Europeanization process by the political elites as an anchor for reforms that will significantly change the continuous balance of powers in favor of government. In this sense, the central questions around this study are “do core executives strategically employ the process of Europeanization to enhance their relative power and status? or do they sincerely continue the reform process with a full commitment to the EU perspective despite the high transition costs and the EU’s lack of a consistent enlargement policy regarding Turkey’s full membership?”. This study aims to analyze in what ways Europeanization has empowered the Turkish core executive, namely the JDP in the area of Cyprus policy. These are hypothesized that: - “the process of Europeanization provides a privileged position for the JDP government in the European rule adaptation in general and in its restructuring of Cyprus policy in particular. This growing role and power of core executives on the matter of European rule adaptation changes the existing balance of powers in favor of change agents. Consequently Europeanization process turns into an “opportunity structure” in which core executives strategically use the process to empower their relative status and power among other political actors; to enhance their area of maneuver; and use it as a political instrument at both domestic and foreign policy levels. Thus in the process of Europeanization, Cyprus conflict emerges as a significant political front of the clash of interests in between the conservative national security based thesis of the forces in favor of status quo- Turkish Armed Forces, conservative diplomatic cycles and Northern Cyprus’ president Rauf Denktas- and of the path-breaking conflict resolution premises of the newly emerging political elites. In the period between 2002 and 2004, JDP approached the resolution of Cyprus Case with a “carrot catalyst” mentality. Party elites perceived the Europeanization of Cyprus Case as a great opportunity structure for Turkey’s bargaining with EU, resolution of the conflict and re-shape the Turkish foreign and domestic political environment.” - “When we observe the longitudinal evolution of JDP’s Cyprus policy, it is possible to claim that the political elites employed a strategic Europeanization mentality in line with the nature and intensity of Turkish- EU relations. The EU’s lack of a consistent and credible membership perspective towards Turkey is also a vital element of JDP’s further Europeanization attempts in general and taking initiatives for the solution of Cyprus problem. In addition to this with the increasing Euro-skeptical oppositions against government’s Cyprus policy in both public and political environment pushed political elites to de-Europeanize its Cyprus discourse. Therefore the “anchor-credibility dilemma”. The dependent variable –core executive- is approached as the strategic actors who co-ordinates, monitors and regulates the European rule adaptation at institutional, policy and normative transformations in line with the European Union conditionality –independent variable- within the domestic institutional constraints and new opportunity structures–intervening variables-. With a balanced theoretical emphasis on Historical Institutionalist and Rational Choice Institutionalist theories, the performance of core executive as the “key actor” is discussed in line with the institutional constraints caused by Turkish domestic legislative, administrative and political system. The theoretical proposition of Historical Institutionalism which points out the path dependency as a crucial determinant of institutional change is planned to be utilized to understand the strength and effect of domestic institutional constraints on the executive branch in the process of European harmonization. Moreover, to eradicate to reach a deterministic conclusion, Rational Choice Institutionalism - that highlights the significance of agency and opportunity structures as the chief explanatory mechanisms of institutional change- is employed. In this sense, this work approaches the matter of Europeanization as a process of institutional and political adaptation which includes “top-down” pressures of adaptation; the factors mediating the adaptation and the change agents.
