“Turkey’s EU Ambition: Can we Avoid Derailment?” with Dr. Frances G. Burwell, Director of the Atlantic Council’s Program on Transatlantic Relations

Interviewer:    We were there just recently.  I was very impressed by the industrialization of Turkey.

Interviewee:    Uh-hmm.

Interviewer:    I mean tourism of course is a major, major factor of GDP.  Cars are being built.  And also militarily, isn’t Turkey one of the largest forces in NATO?

Interviewee:    Yes it is, very definitely.

Interviewer:    I though just agriculture is changed somewhat in the decades?

Interviewee:    In fact, this is one of the issues with the Turkey and EU membership as I referred to earlier in terms of population, but it’s also true for all these other factors.  Turkey is big.

Interviewer:    It certainly is, and influential.

Interviewee:    And influential.  It’s influential in a neighbourhood where the EU is not always sure it wants to be influential.  But, it’s also this issue of you suddenly have a country that has a bigger population than Germany.  It has a military that is big, receives a good proportion of GDP, much more than any other NATO country.  The Turks are not reluctant to send that military on missions when they believed that it’s a justified mission.

Interviewer:    Uh-hmm.