Luxembourg-Turkey relations

Luxembourg	Turkey

Luxembourg–Turkey relations are the bilateral relation between Luxembourg and Turkey. Following Luxembourg's independence from the Netherlands, ^[1] Turkey recognized Luxembourg on May 31, 1867. ^[1] The Turkish Embassy in  Luxembourg was established in 1987. ^[2] In response, Luxembourg opened its embassy in Ankara on November 29, 2011. ^[2]

History

Relations became tense in late 1990s following the 1997 Luxembourg Council meeting, where the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl defined ^[3] the European Union as requiring “civilization,” which a Muslim majority country ^[4] such as Turkey lacked.

Turks were further shocked ^[5] by the discussion in which the Greek foreign minister Pangalos ^[6] gave an unmitigated description ^[5] of the Turks as “bandits, murderers and rapists.’’

High level visits

Guest	Host	Place of visit	Date of visit
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan	Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker	Grand Ducal Palace, Luxembourg City	November 2004 [7]
Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker	Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan	Çankaya Köşkü, Ankara	November 8–9, 2011 [7]
Grand Duke Henri	President Abdullah Gül	Çankaya Köşkü, Ankara	November 18–22, 2013 [7]

Economic relations

• Trade volume between the two countries was US$160 million in 2017 (Turkish exports/imports: 36/124 million USD). ^[7]
• There are direct flights from Istanbul to Luxembourg City twice daily. ^[7]
• 2,764 tourists from Luxembourg visited Turkey in 2015. ^[7]

See also

• Foreign relations of Luxembourg
• Foreign relations of Turkey

References

Further reading

• Barber, Lionel. “EU Group Rebuffs Turkish Entry Push,” Financial Times, 5 March 1997.
• Boomgaarden, Hajo G. “Religion and Party Positions Towards Turkish EU Accession,” Comparative European Politics, 10 (2012).
• De Vreese, Claes. “A Threat Called Turkey: Perceived Religious Threat and Support for EU Entry of Croatia, Switzerland and Turkey,” Acta Politica, 48.1 (2013).
• Heinz, Kramer, A Changing Turkey: A Challenge to Europe and the US (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2000), p. 287, footnote 40.
• Hurd, Elizabeth Shakman. “Negotiating Europe: The Politics of Religion and the Prospects for Turkish Accession,” Review of International Studies, 32.3 (2006), p. 406.
• McLaren, Lauren M. “Explaining Opposition to Turkish Membership of the EU,” European Union Politics, 8.2 (2007).
• Müftüler, Leyla. “Through the Looking Glass: Turkey in Europe,” Turkish Studies, 1.1 (Spring 2000).
• Neumann, Iver B. Uses of the Other: The East in European Identity Formation (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999).