Turkey: The dimming appeal of EU membership

last updated 8 January 2015

Semih Idiz

Hürriyet

The European Union is suffering buyer’s remorse, said Semih Idiz. I just returned from a long trip through major European capitals, and I heard the same regrets repeated in many different countries. As the financial crisis suffocating the eurozone requires some countries to pay for others’ mistakes and others to make painful cutbacks, Europeans are lamenting “the loss of sovereignty that EU membership has entailed.” Many of them say it was a mistake to admit Greece in the first place, and some say that Bulgaria and Romania should not have been let in either.

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With the Balkans so unpopular, Turkey’s prospects for membership look dimmer than ever. Not only are we even farther southeast than the Balkans, but we’re also predominantly Muslim. Everyone I spoke to, “whether they belong to the ultra-right, moderate right, or the left,” believed Turkey would never become a member. But maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Given that so many EU members regret their own membership, Turkey should rethink its goal of joining them. Listen to the “acrimonious debates raging in Europe.” Do we really want to be part of that bickering, backbiting family?

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