Exploring the US-Europe-Turkey triangle

The vice-director of the International Affairs Institute believes it is necessary to instil new life into Ankara’s EU adhesion process, so as to overcome the difficult ongoing opacity and standstill. There is a thriving commitment for change in Turkey. Regrettably, the absence of a European umbrella initiative has contributed to the rupture of the alliance between the Liberals and the government’s Justice and Development Party, which largely endorsed the country’s reform process. EU hesitations risk undermining the credibility of accession negotiations as well as the very credibility of the Union as a whole. Turkey represents a great opportunity given its geographic location; an important junction of precious energy sources. Its secular, moderate political establishment would constitute an opportunity for addressing multifarious challenges at global level, thus stepping up the Atlantic Alliance: the US could help reconcile the country’s "Europeanness" with its transregional nature.