Earlier this year, Transatlantic Trends, an annual survey of public opinion on both sides of the Atlantic, was published. Key highlights from the survey included a quadrupling of European support for President Obama’s handling of foreign policy. But what really caught my eye was how badly the relationship between the West and Turkey had frayed. 65 percent of Turks do not think it is likely their country will join the EU. Nearly half of Turks polled think Turkey is not really part of the West, while 43 percent think Turkey should not partner with the EU, the US or Russia in solving global problems.
The break-down of the alliance between the West and Turkey – which has endured since the Truman administration, and contributed to the strength of NATO, the resistance to the Soviet Union and, latterly, to a number of Middle East peace initiatives – is bad news; not least because many commentators, like George Friedman of Stratfor, believe
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