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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ...suddenly said:
“Recently during my visit to Russia I joked with Putin. I said, ‘You poke fun at us, occasionally asking what business we have in the EU. Then let me poke fun at you. Include us in the Shanghai Five and we will give up on the EU.’”
..China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan and later took Uzbekistan on board. ... However, in political terms, there is an obvious problem: all of these countries are dictatorships. One of them, Uzbekistan, is even one of the most brutal and oppressive tyrannies in the world.
In other words, imagining the SCO as an alternative to the European Union does not say great things about the possible direction Ankara is heading in. If Erdogan is really serious about this, then we are in trouble. No wonder Turkey’s EU-oriented political commentators have been ringing the alarm bells ever since the “Shanghai option” hit the headlines.
On the other hand, there is an equal possibility that Erdogan perhaps only wants to give a message to European leaders and remind them that Ankara is not “optionless” if they keep on keeping Turkey at bay...
..EU supporters among the voters of the “Islamist” AKP are slightly higher than the same group among the voters of the ultra-secularist Republican People’s Party - CHP.) The real reason is the cold, unwelcoming attitude of some EU-member states, such as France, and the growingly diminishing attraction of Europe as an economic power.
The same theme – economy – is also the reason why Turkey is opening up to “the East,” and why Erdogan is contemplating putting a foot in the SCO. ..
..In the brave new world of today, though, authoritarian regimes such as China are creating economic miracles, implying to others that they, too, could have prosperity without relying on democracy.
My take on such a post-Western world would be to globalize economically but stick with the West politically. Make business with Shanghai, in other words, but still get your political norms from Brussels. And I very much hope that Erdogan, when he is not joking but thinking strategically, would not disagree.
Source: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/from-european-union-to-club-of-dictators-.aspx?pageID=449&nID=40323&NewsCatID=411
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I hope the PM was joking.
I also think that fast-track development and economic success of China can not be an example for Turkey which has over 10K$ GDP per capita.
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