Turkey and the West

Turkey belongs to NATO, is a member of the Council of Europe and has been a candidate for accession to the European Union for quite a long time. As a result of these ties, Turkey benefits from significant funding from Europe, enjoys a customs union with the EU and participates in attractive European partnerships in education and research. Europe also supports Turkey financially for welcoming millions of Syrian refugees on its soil. All this looks like a cloudless sky, doesn't it? Well, not exactly.

Since Recep Tayyip Erdogan became president of Turkey in 2014 and even more so since he faced a failed coup in 2016, storm clouds have accumulated rapidly, and we are now experiencing very disturbed weather conditions.

The most striking recent incident is probably one that happened in June: While participating in the NATO maritime operation Sea Guardian in the Mediterranean...