Commentary / Esen Çağlar

"Ever more of us nowadays think that the crisis in Europe has shaken the foundations of Turkey’s European Union (EU) project. Looking at the acceleration of the trade figures between Turkey, the Middle East, and North Africa, some get caught up in the notion that the region might be an alternative to the EU as a partner for Turkey. I personally feel sorry for those who think that the EU is breaking down and that Turkey has an alternative. I have always thought that the EU was the only thing that could transform Turkey positively in the twenty-first century, just as the Republican project transformed it in the twentieth. This idea of has been strengthened lately.

I do not intend to enumerate the benefits of the EU. I merely want to remind those who seem to have forgotten of the biggest one: The EU is the most important convergence machine ever developed. That is, it is a mechanism that turns middle income countries, just like Turkey, into high income ones, without letting them get caught in the middle-income trap, which is Turkey’s main risk."

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