Alarming coup plot in Turkey

Since the beginning of the week at least 49 people suspected of being involved in so-called "Operation Sledgehammer" have been arrested. The Turkish government sees the operation as a coup plot while the accused military is describing it as a map exercise. Europe needs to pay more attention to Turkey, the liberal daily Corriere del Ticino remonstrates: "The government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, which clearly feels offended and repudiated by the negative attitude of certain EU countries toward Turkish accession to the EU, has for some time now been trying to assume a new role in the international community. It seems to increasingly prefer contacts with the Asian and Islamic world, and in Europe some are questioning whether it was perhaps a strategic error to express excessive distrust about Turkey's EU accession. For sure, many Europeans are alarmed by Turkey's more than 70 million inhabitants and the clout the country would have once it got into the control centre in Brussels. But perhaps the gap that is growing between Ankara and Europe owing to the former's new alliances with countries that inspire little confidence should make us even more scared."

» full article (external link, Italian)
More from the press review on the subject » EU enlargement, » EU neighbourhood policy, » Turkey
All available articles from » Osvaldo Migotto

» To the complete press review of Thursday, February 25, 2010