For a government minister to make statements endangering his own portfolio is not a common occurrence. For this reason, it was noteworthy that Turkey's EU Minister Egemen Bagis stated that Turkey is likely never to become a member of the European Union but could one day enter into a Norwegian-type relationship with the union.

If you ask Bagis, who spoke last week at a conference at Yalta, Ukraine, there is only one reason complicating Turkey’s EU membership: the Islamophobia and prejudice that were exposed most recently at the voting for the 2020 Olympics venue.

It would, of course, be naive to say that prejudices do not exist in Europe. It is equally difficult to deny that these prejudices are nourished by Islamophobia, which has replaced anti-Semitism in today’s world. But is this unpleasant phenomenon enough to validate Bagis’ remarks?

There is no doubt that Turkey has taken great economic strides over the last 10 years. It has also taken crucial steps to distance the Turkish military, which had staged four coups in the past, from politics, thus advancing democracy. One has to also look at the steps taken to solve the Kurdish question that has been a bleeding wound for Turkey.