Evaluation Note/ Nilgün Arısan Eralp

Turkey and the European Union (EU) have always been mutually dependent via several economic, political, diplomatic and cultural links.  Hence, in principle, they should count on each other to formulate and implement solutions for key challenges like migration, energy divergence, security, international terrorism etc.

Unlike the mutual dependency suggests, relations between the parties have always been problematic but volatile as there have always been ups and downs. Nonetheless the current situation does not look like a temporary crisis from which relations would recover soon and therefore it is best to define the current crisis a structural rather than cyclical or contextual one. Turkey has not been an issue in the elections for the European Parliament. There has been no reference to Turkey at all in the “Political Guidelines” of the new European Commission. The “Peace Spring Operation” and the drilling activities in the Eastern Mediterranean followed by the EU sanctions have made the situation worse.

You may read evaluation note from here.