The adjustment of Turkish SME policy to the EU requirements: Are Turkish SMEs internationalized enough to play on EU scene?

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play a vital role in the country's economic development. In this context SMEs' importance in Turkish economy is considerable due to their number and contributions to the economy and workforce and there is a clear understanding that there's a necessity to begin a process of international integration on the way to EU for Turkey. The one of main instrument for this integration is internationalization that has been triggered by current trend of economic growth and the rapid industrial development. The focus of this paper is to determine the main objectives of internationalization for SMEs in Turkey and measure their compatibility with 16th chapter which concerns Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SME) Policy by choosing exports as an internationalization tool in Textile Sector in Marmara Region, Turkey. Keywords: SMEs, Internationalization, European Union, Globalization, Market, Export, Textile Sector