Vol.17,No.2 | [Article] Morocco and Türkiye Post-EU Membership Denial:Their Regional Spheres as Alternatives

The European Union’s (EEC then) relations with Morocco and Türkiye date back to the 1960s, when they signed their first trade agreements. In the aftermath of the second major EU enlargement in the 1980s, after the joining of Spain and Portugal in 1986 despite their economic low performance, both Moroccan and Turkish applied for full membership. European media, then, argued that Europeans would deny both Morocco and Türkiye’s membership while it is quite important to find compromise solutions. Therefore, they both turned towards their geographical sphere, Sub-Saharan Africa for Morocco and MENA (mainly the Middle East) for Türkiye. This paper aims to compare Moroccan and Turkish foreign policies towards their regional spheres as a reaction against their EU’s membership denial.