The European Union Dilemma of the Kurds: High Support for Membership despite Lack of Sufficient Trust

Abstract

How people in member and candidate states are oriented toward the European Union - meaning, how well they know and how they evaluate the EU-is significant with regard to the sustainability of the EU. Because of the critical place of the Kurdish issue on the agenda of Turkey's accession process to the EU, the orientation of the Kurds toward the union has been of particular importance. This article, therefore, analyzes the Kurdish orientation toward the EU on the basis of comprehensive fieldwork conducted in the southeast of Turkey, where the majority of the country's Kurdish population is located.