Will Turkey, EU relations improve after Mogherini visit?
If Turkey is so isolated, why all the high-level visits to Ankara in the last month?
Pro-government circles in Turkey have been boasting about successive visits by Western dignitaries to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. US Vice President Joe Biden’s visit in the second half of November has been followed so far in December by visits of Pope Francis, Russian President Vladimir Putin, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and British Prime Minister David Cameron. Pro-government figures sarcastically respond to claims that Turkey’s ties with the Western world are jeopardized and Turkey is heading for isolation under its Islamist leadership by pointing out the names of the international officials rushing to Erdogan’s new controversial but glamorous palace in Ankara and saying, “What kind of isolation is this?”
Their sarcasm has some justification. An isolated country and its leadership would not have such appeal as Turkey and its leaders appear to have these days.
Interestingly, except for Putin, all those who landed in Ankara flew in from the West. Mogherini and Cameron in particular aroused the hopes of regenerating Turkey-EU relations, which for a long time have been in a state of lethargy.
Since Turkey started the accession talks with the EU in 2005, only 14 chapters out of 35 — the number that corresponds to the number of policy areas Turkey has to fulfill to be a full member of the EU — have been opened for negotiations. The latest chapter, following a three-year lull, opened in November 2013.
