Turkey Drifts from the West?

There are three pieces of analysis that tackle the obvious drift of Turkish foreign policy away from the European Union and the United States.

Dan Bilefski in the New York Times reports on a multitude of viewpoints on the new direction of Turkish foreign policy towards the East. He deals with the problem of the Turkish accession to the European Union and the cultural and economic prerequisites for the re-orientation. He says that even a partial collapse of accession talks with the European Union would have far-reaching consequences. I find interesting the quote from Cengiz Aktar that rather than worrying that Turkey is moving toward the East, the West should fear a wounded Turkey turning to Russia.

Daniel Pipes says that Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu envisions reduced conflict with neighbors and Turkey emerging as a regional power, a sort-of modernized Ottoman Empire.

Philip Stephens in the Financial Times believes that Turkey still wants to be part of Europe. And on every challenge – from energy, from terrorism, drugs and migration to trade and investment – Europe has an immutable interest in nurturing a democratic, west-facing Turkey.