Izzet Nas

Beyond the Europeanization of Greece and Turkey: the Impact of Business Groups and Non-governmental Actors Izzet Nas

Until earlier last decade, it was barely conceivable to see any foreign direct investment on both sides of the Aegean, or witness the penetration of Greek banking giant NBG in tempting and highly-profitable Turkey's financial services industry. Similarly, few would expect that the academia, opinion leaders and civil society organizations can influence Greek-Turkey rapprochement so critically. Noticably, most of the contemporary Greek-Turkish studies focused on security-related issues. Historial developments which drove the advancement of Greek democracy over its Turkish counterpart had been a central question that many authors re-visited.  However, the objective of this book is to assess the impact of lesser addressed role of business groups and non-governmental actors concering Europeanization of Greece and Turkey. Given the set of incentives provided by the European framework, Greek-Turkish relations entered into a new orbit of rapprochement since 1999. Civil diplomacy, coupled with rising business interests reinforced political dialogue. The indispensible role of the EU has been instrumental in catalyzing social and business rapprochement. This book explores the factors and analyzes the driving motivations of policy actors, interests groups and business circles that made possible to generate an irrevocable magnetic force in the Europeanization of Greek-Turkish relations.