Evaluation Note / Nilgün Arısan Eralp Quest for New Formulas in Turkey and EU Relations (New Models Based on "Good Faith" and "Necessity")

Lately, the deadlock  in Turkey's EU accession process  and the interpretation of Turkey's  active foreign policy as  a  "shift of axis" by some segments of "western world"  resulted  in such evaluations where one of the factors behind Turkey's new activism is presented as alienation of Turkey by the EU.  Last summer this interpretation was  clearly emphasized in the international media by the US Secretary of Defense  Mr. Robert Gates and then  the US President  Mr.  Barack Obama.

In order to play its part in  alleviating    the so called  "shift of axis"  worries and to benefit from the increasing global   economic and strategic significance  of Turkey, in their meeting on 11 December 2010 EU Foreign Ministers proposed closer relationship  ("strategic dialogue")  with Turkey , while leaving aside "problems associated with membership perspective for the moment".  Turkish Foreign Minister  Mr.   Ahmet Davutoğlu  while voicing the first official response of Turkey to this proposal stated that  given the slow pace of accession negotiations, the "strategic dialogue" between Turkey and the EU can not be strengthened.

Secretary General of NATO, Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, in  his statement in the  European Voice dated 30 September, iterated that the NATO-EU cooperation stumbles mainly because of the Cyprus conflict  and proposed a new role for Turkey in EU's security policy to surmount this problem. He raised  the same concern  in his recent visit to Turkey.