![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/OB-UI866_Merkel_E_20120829094642.jpg\" "\\"OB-UI866_Merkel_E_20120829094642\\"")
<\/p>\nBy Emre Peker<\/p>\n
ISTANBUL \u2014 There was a time when joining the European Union was Turkey\u2019s most-prized goal. Now, Turks don\u2019t want to go anywhere near the bloc.<\/p>\n
Support for joining the EU has dropped to a record low of 17% from 34% last year, according to a survey published Tuesday by the Turkish European Foundation for Education and Scientific Studies, or Tavak. What\u2019s more, almost 80% of the 1,110 people polled in eight cities across Turkey in June said they didn\u2019t believe Turkey would join the 27-nation bloc.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
European Pressphoto Agency<\/p>\n
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Nov. 2, 2011. Before that meeting, in a newspaper interview Mr. Erdogan accused Germany of blocking Turkey\u2019s entry to the EU.<\/p>\n
At the heart of it is Turkey\u2019s strong economic growth, contrasting with the EU, which has seesawed in and out of recession amid a financial crisis during the past three years, said Faruk Sen, chairman of Tavak. Also fueling sentiment against joining the EU are repeated snubs from EU leaders against Turkish entry to the bloc and a feeling that the union is anti-Islam, he said in an interview on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom now on, the EU will have to coddle Turkey, be more hands-on. Turkey is developing alternatives,\u201d Mr. Sen said. \u201cThink of it this way, a man doesn\u2019t think of an alternative to a wife he very much loves, but if the woman withdraws, then the husband looks for alternatives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Analogies of failed marriages aside, Turkey has indeed been deepening trade ties with the Middle East and North Africa in the past five years. While the EU is still Turkey\u2019s biggest export market, its share of the pie is falling fast.<\/p>\n
As Turkey\u2019s sales abroad have been growing at a healthy clip \u2014 reaching a record $135 billion in 2011 \u2014 the EU\u2019s share shrunk to 46% in 2011 from 56% in 2007, according to the state statistics agency. As of June, Turkish businessmen had cut their sales to the EU to 39% while boosting exports to the Middle East and North Africa to 36%, up from 28% in 2011.<\/p>\n
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had made EU membership a priority after his party came to power in 2002 and clinched accession talks with the bloc in 2005. At the time, support for joining the union had peaked at 78%, Tavak\u2019s Mr. Sen said, citing another survey.<\/p>\n
However, the thrust behind membership negotiations cooled as Mr. Erdogan grew more confident on the back of an average annual economic growth rate of 5.5% in the past decade, increased Turkey\u2019s clout in the Middle East after spats with Israel, and used EU reforms to remove the military\u2019s iron grip on politics.<\/p>\n
Indeed, of the 35 chapters that must be negotiated to complete Turkey\u2019s accession only 13 have so far been opened. And, for the past two years, there has been no progress, according to the EU\u2019s enlargement website. Turkey\u2019s EU Affairs Ministry wasn\u2019t immediately available for comment.<\/p>\n
However, despite waning enthusiasm in Turkey to join the EU, lack of progress in negotiations and the bloc\u2019s shrinking importance as an export market, trade and investment ties will remain large, said Robert O\u2019Daly, a senior analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit in London.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings have definitely changed since the negotiations started. While Turkish support to join the EU is extremely low, it\u2019s not surprising given the problems in Europe and Turkey\u2019s greater self confidence, both economically and politically,\u201d Mr. O\u2019Daly said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Still, after years of work toward a union, the EU and Turkey are unlikely to pull the plug on the negotiations, regardless of low public support, according to Mr. O\u2019Daly. \u201cI don\u2019t think it is the end of the road \u2026 the talks will officially remain in place, and on-and-off there are going to be stronger contacts, but I don\u2019t see any real progress being made.\u201d<\/p>\n
via Turks to European Union: No, Thanks – Emerging Europe Real Time – WSJ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Emre Peker ISTANBUL \u2014 There was a time when joining the European Union was Turkey\u2019s most-prized goal. Now, Turks don\u2019t want to go anywhere near the bloc. Support for joining the EU has dropped to a record low of 17% from 34% last year, according to a survey published Tuesday by the Turkish European […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":56289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[985,2933,3520,1018],"class_list":["post-56287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eu-members","tag-eu","tag-euro-crisis","tag-merkel","tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}