A Turkey that drifts away from the EU and gets closer to the SCO would surely impact this balance, not to the advantage of the West. Secondly, since the 1990s Turkey has become an important economic player precisely at a time when the EU is caught in a deep recession. In 1999, when Turkey was recognized as an EU candidate, its GDP, at just below 250 billion USD, was the 9th largest among EU member countries after Belgium. By 2012, Turkey’s economy had more than tripled to 783 billion USD, surpassing Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden to become the 6th largest economy in the EU. Excluding Poland, Turkey’s economy is now almost larger than all the new member countries’ economies combined.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Jun 2013 10:24:52 +0000
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