Turkey at a Tipping Point: Why the EU Should Use Gezi to Rebalance Ankara’s Foreign Policy

PISM Policy Papers, No. 17 (65), July 2013
The Polish Institute of International Affairs

by Pinar Elman *

Protests that began over the re-development of Gezi Park in Istanbul and spread throughout the country mark a turning point not just in Turkey’s domestic policy but in its foreign policy, too. The protestors demand a pluralistic democracy, rule of law, secularism, decentralisation of power from party elites, greater transparency and non-interference in private life. The EU, which increasingly looks on Turkey as a key regional partner, has an interest in reining in certain aspects of its domestic and foreign policies that seem to have been driven by the ideology of the governing AKP party.

* Pinar Elman is an analyst at the Polish Institute of International Affairs.

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