Turkey’s place in Europe

Turkey’s place in Europe was the cause of heated debate this week, as the United States expressed its concerns that the EU’s refusal to accept Turkey as a member swiftly has partly caused the deterioration in its relations with Israel.

Since starting EU membership talks in 2005, Turkey has succeeded in opening only 12 of the 35 chapters that candidate countries must complete to join. With both France and Germany cool on Turkish membership, the worry is that

the EU’s refusal to embrace Turkey is pushing it eastwards.

As Italy’s foreign minister said: “If we give Turkey the impression that we don’t want them as a member of the EU family then they will look around for other perspectives, for example regional powers like Iran and Syria.”