Ch.5 - Turkey: Marching East and West

Turkey is an extremely important country to the EU. This is why:

- Geopolitical asset

- Most powerful, democratic and secular Muslim state -> shows nations that the EU are not Christian crusaders that Arabs hate

Geopolitical Asset

- Turkey is gateway to potential danger zone of Syria, Iraq, and Iran ->EU needs to get friendly with Arab and Persian neighbours, therefore a geopolitical asset

- Eurasian bridge to carry Russian, Caspian and Iranian oil to the Balkans

- Stabilizer in the Caucasus

Muslim

Turkey can be seen as a state that pushes the EU to be more political, without the bias of religion. Even though Turkey is becoming less and less traditional, and is a nation that models how Islam and modern times can work together. Turkey is "both the world's largeest lingerie manufacturers and a leading designer of modest Islamic swimwear". By integrating Turkey into the EU, the EU has taken the first step in the Islamic world. A step into building relations with other Islamic countries.

From https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh90DylzgO6agV7kiAYrK91UXYJk4SPTv7nam9-wDPYTixwBVUx8O18ycbvmHu6NSJy5oQ4lICtOgTDyMI_SCE0lk_AuSllaxMpd92gUXApAPqi7f656waS9SGhVtKPZqGtXkNaXUOojIo/s320/jenny-rose1

Benefits of Europeanization to Turkey
Turkey, "even without membership, its economy has already benefited enormously from four decades of trade and migration through Europe's customs union" (p.40). This however, may not be a good move on the EU's part. With such benefits already, why would Turkey want to be a part of the EU? Europe is not only economically important to Turkey, but is also important to the country's psychological and political anchor. Even so, some Turks don't want full EU membership, but a "Plan B". This means that the country can integrate with the EU whenever it wants to. At this point in time, it seems as though there is no way that Turkey can be fully integrated into the EU and it seems that Turkey is pretty happy with its place right now. Even though EU is playing hard-to-get with Turkey, I think that it is more important to the EU that this nation is part of the empire. Therefore, I believe that without loosening up its rules for eligibility and giving up incentives, there is no reason why Turkey would want to change for the EU.