"Pushing Turkey to the East
Zeynep Gurcanli
gurcanli@thenewanatolian.com
13 April 2006
The location of Turkey at the crossroads of Europe and Asia has had a huge effect on the political issues and direction of the country. Depending on how international winds are blowing, Ankara is driven sometimes to the West, and sometimes to the East.
Two years ago, due to the critical decision of the European Union about whether or not to start membership negotiations with Turkey, Ankara’s main overarching issue was how to harmonize the country with the West. But when the talks were granted and Turkey felt secure over the continuation of its relations with the EU, the Turkish public immediately shifted its attention to other issues, like the future of Iraq or a possible American attack against Iran or Syria. During the latest get-together of Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul with the Turkish press last week, the main focus of the journalists was a concrete example of this trend: None of the reporters present used the opportunity of an open floor to ask questions about relations between the EU and Turkey. The only EU question came at the very end of the meeting, as the last issue of interest to ask the country’s top diplomat, after covering all the other foreign policy and domestic issues like the future relations of Ankara with Teheran, the rise in the terrorist activities of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the possible effects on Turkey of the failure to establish a government in Iraq, etc."
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