An asset but not a model: Turkey, the EU and the wider Middle East

In his 

 
essay published by the Centre for
European Reform, Steven Everts argues that while Turkey
could be the EU’s biggest success in foreign
affairs, it should not be seen as a model for the
Middle East.

1. A success story for EU foreign
policy, but what next?

Many politicians and commentators tend to
disparage the EU’s nascent foreign policy.
They should travel to Turkey. It is true that
the EU has a poor record in making its mark on
global crises. But its ability to exert
influence in countries wishing to join the EU
has been nothing short of revolutionary. In
recent years, successive Turkish governments,
and especially the new AKP government led by
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have passed rafts of
reform packages. These reforms have brought
Turkey into line with the EU’s exacting
Copenhagen membership criteria on democracy and
human rights. The prospect of EU accession has
made issues that had been political taboos for
decades, such as the role of the army in
Turkish politics, suddenly ripe for reform.
This form of ‘regime change’ EU-style
is cheap, voluntary and hence long-lasting. If
enlargement is by far the EU’s most
successful foreign policy tool, then Turkey
could be the EU’s biggest success in
foreign affairs.

At the December European Council, the heads
of state and government will have to decide
whether and when to open accession talks with
Turkey. EU leaders are rightly mindful of
public opposition and the effects that
Turkey’s membership could have on the
Union’s cohesion and capacity to act. But
the best way for the EU to consolidate and
anchor Turkey’s democratisation process is
by giving Turkey the green light to start
accession negotiations.

Moreover, EU leaders should make that choice
in a spirit of self-confidence and optimism,
not resignation and dejection. It would be a
triumph of EU foreign policy to welcome a
successful Turkey, which has laid to rest the
ghosts of military authoritarianism and chronic
economic instability. Europeans should say,
loudly and repeatedly, that no one else has
managed to transform, in a peaceful and
deliberate manner, the political system of a
country as large and complex as Turkey.

Visit the CER website 
to read the analysis in full

.