President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan started a new debate ahead of this week’s NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. Commenting on Sweden’s bid to join the Alliance, he argued that the relevant countries should “clear Türkiye’s path to European Union (EU) membership.” That statement aligned perfectly well with the readout of Erdoğan’s most recent phone call with U.S. President Joe Biden.

The latest crisis in Turkey-EU relations has erupted over the increasingly frequent rejection of Turkish citizens' Schengen visa applications in the past year by EU countries.

Türkiye will preserve its “strategic autonomy” and redouble its efforts to promote normalization and stronger relations based on “mutual interests.”

Türkiye’s rebuilding process, which may take at least a few years, will also be critical for the internal solidarity of the Western alliance.

For the future of the EU, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is required to take bold actions, which can directly, or indirectly, impact Turkey's ties with the bloc as well

2021 was not filled with many positive stories about Turkish-European Union relations. At the end of 2020, in a report published The Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), we assessed the conclusion of cautious optimism for 2021. While the side of caution prevails, the optimism has been delayed for yet another year.

Merkel’s last 16 years in office will be recorded in history as one of the most active periods in Turkish-German relations. Erdoğan and Merkel’s efforts to act as two rational actors on the axis of mutual interests became the main driving forces of this 16-year dynamism.

Ankara should also continue its call for Athens to return to constructive neighborly relations and pave the path toward that direction.

Although the European summit’s unsatisfactory outcome was hardly surprising, both sides need to make an effort to maintain the positive atmosphere, which emerged in recent months. Brussels delivered a weak response to Ankara’s calls for “a new chapter.” The weakness of that response will add to the workload of diplomats in coming months, as they attempt to prevent fresh tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean and between Turkey and Greece.

The leaders of the EU held another high-level meeting at the end of June. The meeting came after a busy diplomatic schedule for the month. With the G-7, NATO and U.S.-EU summits in June 2021, trans-Atlantic relations gained new momentum under Joe Biden's presidency in the U.S.

June will be a particularly busy month for Turkey in the international arena. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is due to meet United States President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the NATO Summit on June 14. Later this month, the European Union’s leaders will discuss their “positive agenda” with Turkey.

veryone responded to the coup-tinted declaration of 104 retired admirals the way I predicted on the state broadcaster TRT’s weekly current affairs show the following morning.

The European Union leaders summit resulted in minor positive steps and a three-month extension. The description of steps for rapprochement as “gradual, proportional and reversible” was a textbook carrot-and-stick routine. Europe’s method of communication, too, was quite familiar.

Unless the EU respects Turkey’s independent will to protect its own interests, it is unlikely that their relations will grow into a stable cooperation in the long run

In the early 2000s, Turkey made remarkable progress in terms of legal and political reform. At the time, there was a belief in total membership as well momentum for political change and adaptation. The EU side slowed down the process and obstructed Turkey's accession progress.

Turkey and the European Union seek a positive agenda. It would serve the interests of both parties if the European Council’s meeting on March 25-26 transforms that pursuit into a concrete policy. After all, it is high time that the Turkey-EU relationship undergoes a strategic assessment.