ANALYSING THE EFFECTS OF 2008 GLOBAL CRISES ON TURKEY AND EUROPEAN UNION WITH CLUSTER ANALYSIS

In our study we aimed to analyze the effects of 2008 Global Crisis on Turkey and European Union Countries (EU) and determine whether the distance between Turkey and EU is increased or decreased in the crisis period. For this reason, we first, investigated with which stages this crisis emerged, and why and how it occured, and then, how it was experienced in Turkey. Secondly, we examined the structure of EU, and the relations between Turkey and EU. Third, we introduced a general information about Cluster Analysis which is one of the statistical tecniques with multiple variables, and we clustered Turkey and EU members for every year of the 2006-2008 period according to the economic variables which we chosed and then, we showed the size of the effects in the crises period on all of the countries captured in our study. At last basing on our results which we reached with cluster analysis, we evaluated the situation of Turkey in the path of EU membership during the crisis period. In conclusion, even though members took benefit from numerous advantages, and Turkey was alone becouse of not being in the EU, Turkey and Members were affected from the crises with equal levels.