The effect of European Neighbourhood policy on Europeanization of Azerbaijan

After the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union, many independent countries of Eastern Europe entered into the process of integration with the European Union and most of them applied for membership. As a result, the Union faced the biggest enlargement in 2004 called Eastern Enlargement. Since this enlargement, the European Union has launched the European Neighborhood Policy to regulate relations with new neighbours because it was not possible to offer a membership perspective to its new neighbours on the eastern borders at that time. The concept of Europeanization has been the subject of research by various researchers, especially in the Eastern Enlargement process, which has spread rapidly and gained popularity in the 1990s. As the EU deepens its internal integration and enlarges beyond, there has been an increase in the literature on how Europeanization occurs, what is the mechanisms and the consequences of Europeanization in member countries, as well as in the candidate countries. In the recent years, Europeanization in the third countries, and in particular Neighborhood Europeanization, have attracted more attention as research subjects for Europeanization researchers. Especially after the launching of the European Neighborhood Policy, which is the most important tool of Neighbourhood Europeanization, these studies have increased. After regaining the independence in 1991 one of the main aims for the Republic of Azerbaijan was transition to democracy and market economy. Despite the difficulties in transition period, Azerbaijan chose integration to the West and in a short time developed relations with many international organizations in the West. Azerbaijan's relations with the EU have also started since 1991 and still continue under the European Neighborhood Policy. Relations with Azerbaijan is important for the EU, which has been dealing with various crises in the recent years. In this thesis the fields of democracy promotion, economic cooperation, justice and home affairs and conflict resolution, which are the four areas of Neighbourhood Europeanization are examined for Azerbaijan. The challanges of democratization which is the biggest problem of Neigbourhood Europeanization is examined as well. In this thesis we found that the European Neighbourhood Policy has not effected Azerbaijan's Europeanizaton, especially in the field of democracy. However, according to the results we have found this is not only due to the weaknesses of the European Neighborhood Policy. Both internal and external factors are important. Key Words: European Union, Azerbaijan, Europeanization, European Neighbourhood Policy, Eastern Partnership, Democratization, Neighbourhood Europeanization.