Turkish-German crisis goes beyond electoral populism

Populism and the upcoming elections in Germany are not the sole reasons of the current crisis between Turkey and Germany, according to a prominent scholar.

"The crisis goes beyond the so-called populist tendencies that occur around election times. Elections and populism should be considered as factors that have contributed to the acceleration of the crisis, but they are not the main cause of the crisis," Fuat Keyman, the director of the Istanbul Policy Center and Professor of International Relations at Sabancı University, has told the Hürriyet Daily News.

How do you see the current situation in Turkish-German relations?

Firstly, the crisis is a very serious one. Secondly, this crisis goes beyond the so-called populist tendencies that occur around election times. Elections and populism should be considered as factors that have contributed to the acceleration of the crisis, but they are not the main cause of the crisis.

Thirdly, we have to also acknowledge that the Turkey-Germany crisis has a tendency to create a big problem to Turkey-EU relations because Germany's foreign policy pillar is European integration and it is not wrong to think about Turkey-German relations as Turkey-EU-Germany relations for there is an intertwined relationship between the three. In this sense, as someone suggested, Berlin might be more important than Brussels in terms of thinking about how to reenergize Turkey-EU relations. So we are also talking about a crisis with a potential to create big problems in the already problematic Turkey-EU relations.

There is also an irony in this crisis because it occurred at a time when Germany's [Angela] Merkel had been a frequent visitor to Turkey who wanted to make bilateral relations more...