Brussels Edition: Tested by Turkey
By John Ainger and Jonathan Stearns
July 13, 2020, 1:12 AM EDT
Tensions with Turkey will dominate today's first in-person meeting of EU foreign ministers since the coronavirus-induced lockdown. Strains within the EU itself are possible as it gropes for a strategy to address Turkish challenges ranging from energy drilling off Cyprus to involvement in the Syrian and Libyan civil wars. The latest irritant is President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's plan to reconvert the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul to a mosque. EU foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell sent conciliatory signals last week after a visit to Turkey, telling the European Parliament ''what we're trying to do is avoid any kind of confrontation.'' The question these days is not only whether Ankara agrees, but also whether EU national capitals do too.
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