Turkey between the need to enter Europe and that of being a regional power

The disappointment , due to the inability of the government to convince Brussels turkish not conforming to the required standard , the repeated failure of attempts to join the European Union , has lowered the threshold of popular support for this solution from 70 % in 2008-40 % recorded in 2012. It is a decline mainly due to two factors : the first concerns precisely the repeated refusals European and bureaucratic delays that have moved away from the perspective of the country's secular , who feels betrayed by an institution which recognized for the lifestyle tending more and more to the West , which he hoped in a further positive contagion to reduce sectarian influences in Turkish society , and the second factor , however, is completely opposite to the first, because it is the non- recognition in the values ​​and roots of the old continent , considered completely different from those of the country turkish . But if the proponents of the second motivation have a perspective , which is to look to the east Turkey to become a leading country in the Middle East , Mediterranean Africa and even Asia , those who advocate or insisting on their entry into Europe remain orphans of a process that could lead the country out from the impression Islamic increasingly present and pressing. In truth, this process of Islamization of the political fabric has started already for some time and has recently also towards a boundless conditioning of social customs . The ruling party , which has never made ​​any secret of declaring Islam, has gone from a moderation acceptable to a penalty who has broken several times in an integral . It is not clear whether this evolution was due to the refusal of entry into a European Union, which could exert a role halt to this trend , or , rather , to a changed geopolitical needs , which has forced Turkey to turn eastward to sustain its remarkable economic growth , which was also seen as a geopolitical perspective . This view, according to some influential circles of the government remains to be pursued because it is easier to break into markets that are culturally related , rather than continuing to the entrance groped in an institution , where all members have a decidedly different cultural background . This assessment does not take account of the recent bad choices in foreign policy, carried out by the turkish government , which backed Islamic movements , which have become , albeit through regular election results , more and more illiberal , bringing considerable instability in the countries where they have settled to the government. This support , carried out in a manner uncritical , has tightened the position of Ankara also to delicate diplomatic cases , such as the Syrian War , changing modes of foreign policy, from one year to more cautious to a more decided , that, in fact , resulted in a certain degree of international isolation . Turkey brings us to a crucial crossroads for its objectives : to continue a policy facing east to take the lead of the new states emerged from the Arab Spring , a role that promises a lot but it is also risky because the country can lose all his weight international media power , painstakingly built , in the case of implosion of this mingling of legal power and religion , which also implies a substantial economic downsizing , or continue to pursue the path of the entrance in Europe , which provides access to the market, for now , richer, but that implies a minor single and then a cut to the ambitions of the leading country of Muslim regimes . This is an obvious choice because the two do not go together : the one who asks Europe is the strengthening of democratic norms in the country, made ​​it impossible in a state that refers to the Islamic religion in its legal foundations , on the other hand the acceptance of these dictates Europeans would cause the loss of their influence on those states on which Turkey wants to lead . Despite the opposing views, turkish government has stated that entry into Europe remains a strategic objective to which , perhaps, it is worth sacrificing regional ambitions , but that will be achievable only if these waivers will become reality.