David A. Andelman, visiting scholar at the Center on National Security at Fordham Law, wrote an op-ed for NBC News about how the death of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi may impact Turkey’s foreign relations with Europe.
For more than three decades, Turkey has been pounding on the gates of Europe, desperately, at times frantically, seeking entry to the European Union. Turkey believed it had earned the right to be in the EU, and indeed, a decade ago Turkey’s economic growth and prospects were substantially more solid than any number of nations Europe had recently admitted. Turkey had also been a loyal member of the NATO alliance since 1952. But, alas, no matter how loudly and persistently it sought entry to the European Union, there was never any answer.
Eventually, Turkey’s hopes waned. Instead, it turned its attention toward the Arab world, opening new avenues for trade and investment with nations to its south and west, particularly Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Turkey also opposed NATO intervention in Libya. And for a time, and despite the objections of European nations anxious for Turkey to turn off the flow of Syrian migrants through its territory and onward to Europe, Ankara continued to offer a safety-valve for hundreds of thousands of people driven out of Syria by the civil war.
Still, Turkey never gave up completely on Europe, as its handling of the probe investigating Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s killing suggests.