At the October 24 summit of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Minsk, Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev suggested that Turkey may wish to join the Custom Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. According to Nazarbayev, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reached out to him regarding this possibility. “Elsewhere in the West I get asked whether we are creating the Soviet Union or something to suit Russia’s interest. If we let Turkey join, the questions would end,” Kazakhstan’s president noted (http://www.haberevet.com/haber/20131026/707887/avrasya-gumruk-birligi-nden-turkiye-ye-davet-geldi.html). In order to underline the Customs Union’s apparent international attractiveness, Russian President Vladimir Putin echoed Nazarbayev’s remarks about Turkey’s interest in joining.
The revelation has sparked a new debate on the apparent direction of Turkey’s foreign policy away from its orientation toward Europe. On April 26, Turkey became the first and only member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to be named a “dialogue partner” of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) (see Hurriyet Daily News, April 29). Then in September, Turkey apparently chose a Chinese defense firm under United States sanctions to co-produce a $4 billion long-range air and missile defense system, rejecting rival bids from Russian, US and European companies (see EDM, October 25). The sum of these recent developments calls into question Turkey’s continuing commitment to joining the European Union.
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