Conclusion: EU–Turkey Relations and the Contestation of Hegemony in an Age of Normative Crisis

This concluding chapter revisits the book’s core puzzle: how and why the EU’s normative power over Turkey deteriorated, giving way to transactionalism, migration securitization, and authoritarian resilience. Using a neo-Gramscian lens, it traces a three-phase evolution in EU–Turkey relations – from early consent and reform, to stagnation, and finally counter-hegemonic confrontation. The chapter argues that the EU’s shift to material bargaining, especially after the 2016 migration deal, hastened Turkey’s authoritarian turn and revealed the EU’s normative contradictions. It reframes norm diffusion as cyclical and contested, shaped by shifting hegemonic structures. Turkey is positioned as a case of post-hegemonic order, where hybrid regional identities challenge Western integration models. The chapter calls for rethinking regime theory, human rights governance, and normative power under multipolarity.