Erdogan: "We will no longer wait quietly at the EU's door"

With its impressive economic growth, political stability and increasing role in world politics, Turkey can give the troubled European Union the vigor it needs, but Ankara's bid to join the 27-nation bloc is facing unprecedented opposition from some members, said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week. In a guest column for Newsweek Europe, Erdogan wrote that Turkey's accession bid is turning "into a sort of Byzantine political intrigue that no candidate country has previously experienced" and warned Europe's leaders that Turkey will not quietly wait at the EU's door forever. "Our European friends should realize that Turkey-EU relations are fast approaching a turning point," Erdogan wrote in his column "Europe's Robust Man," upending the "sick man of Europe" cliche once used to describe the declining Ottoman Empire. Turkey began accession talks with the EU in 2005 but progress has been slow since. Talks have been opened on only 13 of 35 negotiating chapters, and 18 out of 22 pending chapters have been blocked due to political disputes. The division of Cyprus is one key political obstacle, while countries such as Germany and France are opposed to Turkish membership due to cultural differences. "It's been more than half a century since Turkey first knocked at Europe's door," wrote Erdogan. "In the past, Turkey's EU vocation was purely economic. The Turkey of today is different. We are no longer a country that will wait at the EU's door like a docile supplicant." Erdogan said Ankara's growing ties with former Ottoman territory countries will also help the EU in the future. "This is not a romantic neo-Ottomanism: It is a realpolitik based on a new vision of the global order," Erdogan said of the government's foreign policy. "Some claim that Turkey has no real alternative to Europe. This argument might be fair enough when taking into account the level of economic integration between Turkey and the EU – and, in particular, the fact that a liberal and democratic Europe has always been an anchor for reform in Turkey. However, the opposite is just as valid. Europe has no real alternative to Turkey. Especially in a global order where the balance of power is shifting, the EU needs Turkey to become an ever stronger, richer, more inclusive, and more secure union. I hope it will not be too late before our European friends discover that."