Lying at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, Turkey is a predominantly Muslim and officially democratic and secular country, as well as a current European Union (EU) candidate state. Yet, many European politicians, publics, and others believe that Turkey is culturally different from Europe--and different enough to preclude its EU entry. One reason why people perceive Turkey as different is because of a belief in the incompatibility of Islam and liberal democracy, popularized by Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations (1996), which also characterizes Islam as having a monolithic and unchanging influence on liberal democracy and its values. Some may argue that the electoral success of the AKP (Justice and Development Party) in 2002 and 2007 in Turkey seemingly supports Huntington's (1996) "clash of civilizations" thesis because of the party's strong Islamic base of support. On the other hand, the EU has now enlarged to 27 member states, with others waiting in the wings, which is important for "EU socialization theories" that suggest EU candidacy and membership may shape liberal-democratic policies and values, including in Turkey. Moreover, EU countries have been mired in the global economic crisis, which may potentially impede liberal-democratic values based on modernization and human development theories as well as previous research. In the wake of these debates and developments, this study asks three major research questions: First, to what extent have liberal democratic values-- democracy, separation of religion and state, anti-authoritarianism, and tolerance of racial/ethnic minorities--changed in Turkey and the EU member and candidate states between 2001 and 2008, if at alld Second, what factors explain these valuesl Finally, has the impact of factors explaining liberal-democratic values changed during this time To answer these questions, the paper employs descriptive, factor, and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analyses on two waves of the World and European Values Survey (as late as 2008), supplemented with ordinal logistic models on these and other public opinion data. The results undermine Huntington's (1996) characterizations as they apply to Turkey: While people's values in Turkey have not significantly shifted in some regards, that is also the case in EU member and other candidate states. In Turkey, too, people's values have changed with respect to tolerance of racial/ethnic minorities. The sources of these values are uncovered and discussed. Beyond theoretical debates about the sources of liberal democracy and its values, the results also speak to contemporary political debates over Turkey's EU entry.