Abstract
This article examines the human rights policies of the European Community towards Turkey at two different time periods: the period of military rule (1980-83) and the period preceding the ratification of the Customs Union Agreement between Turkey and the Community. These periods correspond approximately to the times when the Community did not have an institutionalized human rights policy toward third parties (the early 1980s) and when such policy gradually came into being (the 1990s) respectively. The article seeks to find out in relation to these cases whether the existence (or conversely the absence) of an institutional approach to human rights in the external relations of the Community made any difference as far as the perennial dilemma of norms versus interests is concerned in the pursuit of foreign policy. This dilemma is especially relevant for the Community because the ideals of democracy and human rights have increasingly played a salient role in the Community's identity construction, yet its members hold tangible material interests, constraining the pursuit of these ideals beyond the borders of the Community. With a view to exploring this dilemma with regard to the case studies in question, the article looks into the issue of coherence among the policies of the Council, the Commission, and the Parliament and the human rights instruments deployed by the Community along with the rationale behind them.
