Heading towards Democracy? The Assessment of Georgia and Türkiye in the Context of EU Accession Criteria

Georgia and Türkiye experienced dynamic democratic development, influenced by the democratic tendencies of the EU accession process, which has since escalated to recent democratic backsliding. The identification of reasons for such events after 2018 and the extent of fulfilling the Copenhagen accession criteria were used to evaluate the level of democracy in each country. The author used a mixed-methods approach to assess the quality of democracy in each political criterion. The analysis was based mainly on European Commission reports to identify non-democratic factors, and Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) indices to determine convergence towards the EU standards. By comparison, we found that Georgian and Turkish institutions are heavily influenced by dominant majority parties, which, in turn, influences the judiciary. Human rights and minorities are respected more in Georgia than in Türkiye, as the country seriously discriminates against its minorities. In conclusion, the accession criteria were fulfilled to a greater extent in Georgia, sometimes meeting EU levels, than in Türkiye, as Turkish democratic qualities have deteriorated more.