The recent events in Turkey are not just another episode in the domestic political confrontation of the neighboring country. The judicial intervention against the leadership of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the police pressure put on the opposition and the broader shrinking of political pluralism confirm that Turkey is increasingly moving away from the principles of the rule of law and institutional regularity. For Greece, this development is not only of theoretical interest. It has direct strategic importance.
Turkey has long abandoned the prospect of Europeanization. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not want a Turkey that will be bound by the European acquis, by independent institutions, by rules of accountability, and by restrictions on the exercise of state power. On the other hand, the European Union does not seem to want or be able to integrate Turkey due to its size, its political physiognomy and its strategic self-perception. Thus, a framework that in the past brought (false, as it turned out) hope that it would function as an effective mechanism for taming Turkish behavior in the international environment – at least toward Greece and Cyprus – is gradually being lost.
