US Interest vs Turkey's EU membership: by Mehmet Kalyoncu
This provocative argument for why America supports Turkish EU membership, even though it is in some respects counter to its own interests, comes to us from Mehmet Kalyoncu, Research Fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.
“The US favors Turkey’s EU membership because it considers that it could exploit an EU-member Turkey as a ‘Trojan horse,’ through which it could occasionally stir things up in the Union.”
This argument is relatively widely accepted, especially in circles that oppose Turkey’s EU membership. Yet it is a misleading one, and amounts to nothing more than mere conspiracy theorizing. Actually, American interests are not dramatically benefited by Turkey’s EU membership; in fact, on several critical issues they are even threatened. Nevertheless, the US still favors Turkey’s EU membership because first, clear opposition would put it at odds with both Turkey and the EU member countries; and second, impeding Turkey’s official attainment of Western ‘status’ would undermine its efforts towards the democratization of the broader Muslim world. Therefore, the US favors Turkey’s EU membership, but only because it is less detrimental to its interests to have strong ally Turkey in the Western bloc than otherwise. Yet at the same time, American interests are not only challenged but also endangered on two grounds. First of all, with a more powerful and self-sustained European Union, the US will be challenged on issues ranging from military power projection to trade capability. Second, as the former US Ambassador to Turkey Morton Abramowitz implies, the US may lose yet another ally to the opposition side on the international criminal court issue. Furthermore, Turkey may have to adopt a more European, and hence more critical stand vis-à-vis Israel in terms of handling the Palestine conflict."
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