Hürriyet Daily News published an article by Barçin Yinanç headlined "Turkish PM Erdoğan’s gamble in Brussels." "Whenever a rupture has been expected in the stormy relations between Turkey and the European Union, there has always been a breakthrough at the very last moment. The number of people who believe there could be a Davos-like walkout during Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Brussels, leading to a major crisis with the 28 nation bloc, is not insignificant," the article reads.
"While it was nearly impossible for any world citizen that follows global affairs to miss the incident, let’s recall that Erdoğan stormed out of a panel in Davos in 2009 after a war of words with Israeli President Shimon Peres. And, as he promised, he never went back. He has thus boycotted the World Economic Forum for the past five years. Three ministers will attend this year’s Davos summit, which will start today; on the same day, Prime Minister Erdoğan will visit Brussels for the first time in five years," the author writes.
"There is no doubt that Erdoğan needs a push to boost his popularity. Although I do not have statistics to prove it, I don’t think we need them to assume that his image and support level have been weakened. The local elections at the end of March will show precisely the scale of this loss of support, as it has become quite clear that these elections won’t be about local issues, but rather a plebiscite on Erdoğan and his government. If he were to slam the door on Europe, it is not difficult to speculate that he will receive a hero’s welcome in Turkey, where support for the EU has been low and a majority believes that Turkey should act solo on global and regional issues. Some believe this would gain him additional votes in the March elections," the article reads.
"I am not so sure. Although public opinion polls have consistently shown that large majorities in Turkey want the country to act independently and go solo on international relations (the so called “lonely wolf” syndrome), that does not mean that Turks would approve the country being in constant contention on many fronts. Support for the government’s Syrian and Egyptian policies, where it is at odds with the current regimes, has never been high, and the public has never encouraged a more aggressive attitude; to the contrary, in fact," the author writes.
