The Erdoğan Effect

Abstract

It has been argued that a side effect of the Arab Spring has been to align the international political constellation once more in favour of Turkish accession. The series of uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa have reiterated Ankara’s geostrategic importance to the wider European continent — particularly as the initial optimism has turned to concern, and Egypt, Libya and Syria teeter on the brink of varying degrees of chaos for much of the time. Hence, it has been argued, that the EU, with backing from Washington, has been forced to reconsider its actions vis-à-vis Turkey in order to procure Ankara’s continuing cooperation to deal with these numerous uncertain scenarios — particularly Syria. Accordingly, it has tried to maintain momentum in negotiations with the Positive Agenda and was muted in its criticism of the Turkish government following the Gezi protests.