One of my coworkers this last week said that I should compare my thoughts on Turkish accession to the EU before and after my internship. This coworker said their opinions had really changed over the course of their working here in Ankara and following the situation. So here's the first part of what will be a two part post:
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Going into the internship, my impression has been that Turkey does not really want to be in the EU. Turkey is currently in the tariff zone, allowing for easy access to the European market (Turkey's largest export partner); but they are not constrained by the legal requirements of being an EU member: recognizing Cyprus, constitutional and budget reforms, adopting the Euro, etc.
My feeling going into the internship is that the Turks derive a lot of benefits from the status quo without any of the responsibilities that go along with that.
What actually confuses me the most though, is why the EU continues with such an imbalanced relationship. It's pretty clear to me that turkey derives benefits from this relationship, but what the EU gets, I don't really know."
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I'm looking forward to revisiting this. Even in the two weeks that I've been living and working here in Ankara, I've revisited some of these original assumptions. So far those revisits haven't upended my original thoughts but added nuance, background, or motivations. Still in the dark about the EU though, hahaha!
I'll come back to this around the first week of August, so I'm looking forward to seeing where I stand in two months or so.
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