The European Union again?

A few days ago, President Erdoğan reiterated that Turkey's place is in Europe, saying, "We see ourselves in Europe, not elsewhere. We envision building our future together with the European Union,” he said.

The special representatives of the head of state put out a feeler in Brussels on the eve of the EU summit on December 11-12. Allegedly, the first goal of the meetings is to get as little criticism and threats as possible at the October 11-12 summit, and the second is to achieve a resumption of relations.

A few days after this initiative of Ankara, a German ship belonging to the EU intercepted a Turkish warship carrying food to Libya, and as a result of the searches, contrary to what was claimed, no weapons were found on board. Not wanting to aggravate the situation, Ankara was satisfied with sending notes.

Over the past 5.5 years, Turkish-EU relations have become so cold that it has become difficult or even impossible to see what mechanisms of influence can be used to warm them up.

Ankara was not satisfied with the funds promised by the Union to prevent refugees from going to Europe, and the delay in sending the money increased the dissatisfaction.

Ankara's policy of encouraging refugees to gather on the Greek-Bulgarian border was no less effective at the time, and the replay of the same card earlier this year resulted in a fiasco.

As a result of its ideological and political conflicts with the EU, aid to Turkey, which has moved away from Maastricht criteria due to deteriorating economic performance, has been suspended. The situation after the removal of Berat Albayrak, who was responsible for the development of the country's economy for 2.5 years, from the post of the Minister of Finance and Treasury completely put the bubble of Turkey, and Turkey knocked on the door of Doha again in search of "hot money". Not only 10% of the Istanbul Stock Exchange but also some of the country's largest companies were sold to Qatar.

The central bank's assets fell to $ 46 billion, according to a recent report by credit rating agency Fitch.

In the face of this economic table, the government's talk of new reforms, the law, and the European Union should be seen as a good sign in two ways: 1) No matter how "savior" the investment of the Middle East and the Gulf is, if the country's governance criteria are not based on the concepts of law and transparency, the problems will always deepen; 2) Turkey, which has been trying to solve the problems in the region with Russia for the last 4 years, saw that this was not useful in the medium term and began to understand the value of its system (despite all its shortcomings). Therefore, initiatives to reopen the door of the EU began to increase.

This situation should also satisfy the EU because it does not seem possible for Brussels to give up a NATO country that is important in all respects. However, I do not think that Turkey will be able to overcome the pressure if Brussels acts only with pressure under the pretext of the current situation.

But if Turkey abandons the Russian presidential system, the models of the Middle East and the Gulf monarchies, the Eurasian theories, and the Copenhagen and Maastricht criteria as long as reforms continue, the Ankara-Brussels line will be a stage for new dynamism.

After Abdullah Gül took over the country from Bülent Ecevit on November 18, 2002, that dynamism turned into a storm the next day and knocked on the door of Brussels, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was not allowed to run for parliament, demanded that "the door to full membership talks be opened with Turkey" with Prime Minister Gül as party chairman. Will President Erdogan, who is at the peak of his political life, be able to return to the excitement of those days?

Or will he want to return?

Soon…

Mayis Alizade