when did turkey become a candidate for the eu
Accession of Turkey to the European Union Turkey's application to accede to the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the European Union (EU), was made on 14 April 1987.[4] After the ten founding members, Turkey was one of the first countries to become a member of the Council of Europe in 1949. The country was also an associate member of the Western European Union from 1992 to its end in 2011. Turkey signed a Customs Union agreement with the EU in 1995 and was officially recognised as a candidate for full membership on 12 December 1999, at the Helsinki summit of the European Council.
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (/ˈɒtəmən/; Devlet-i ʿAlīye-i ʿOsmānīye[dn 5]), also historically known in Western Europe as the Turkish Empire[8] or simply Turkey,[9] was a state that controlled much of southeastern Europe, western Asia and northern Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt (modern-day Bilecik Province) by the Oghuz Turkish tribal leader Osman I.[10] After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror.[11]