Until recently, Turkey’s bid to join the European Union was firmly on ice.
Stalled in Brussels for years, Turkish officials were vocal about their disillusionment. The foreign minister groused that Europeans didn’t want Turkey in the club.
Now it’s moving back into the realms of the possible — thanks in no small part to President Donald Trump and his administration.
Trump’s upending of US foreign policy is giving Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a renewed swagger, and prompting EU officials to rethink their alliances.
As the Trump administration threatens European security, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte reportedly urged EU leaders to increase engagement with fellow alliance member Turkey.
There’s a clear case to be made for closer ties.
Under Erdoğan’s more than two decades in power, Turkey has become one of the world’s top 20 economies, and has scored some diplomatic successes including brokering the Black Sea grain deal with Russia.
More pertinently, Turkish defense capabilities from drones to artillery shells have taken it into the ranks of global players. It has strategic air bases and NATO’s largest fleet of F-16 fighter jets after the US.
Turkish troops could even join any future peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, sources say.
That’s allowed Erdoğan to crow that European security without Turkey is “unthinkable.”
Still, the road to membership talks is rocky.
A judicial crackdown on dissent from business executives to opposition figures is worrying critics, including in Brussels. Ankara’s friendly ties with China and Russia raise further questions.
Turkey, though, sees the changed security calculus as helping its case for a customs union with the EU or visa-free travel, if not full-blown membership yet.
Erdoğan says that only Turkey “can save the EU from the deadlock it has fallen into.”
Bluster aside, he may have a point. — Beril Akman