COMMENT

Is Trump making Turkey’s bid to be European great again?

Donald Trump’s presidency revives Turkey’s EU ambitions as European leaders, driven by security concerns, reconsider Ankara’s value — armed with NATO’s second-largest F-16 fleet and strategic leverage.

Rashmee Roshan Lall

Mar 24, 2025 — 2 min read

D onald Trump seems to be making Turkey’s 62-year-old bid to be European great again.

In September 1963, Turkey signed the so-called Ankara Agreement to open membership negotiations with the European Union (EU).

Kicking its heels in the waiting room for years, at some point in the last decade, Turkey decided the dream was so unrealistic as to be a nightmare. In fact, after Recep Tayyip Erdogan assumed sultan-like powers as president of Turkey, the government increasingly started to indicate its belief that Europe would never truly regard it as European. It’s fair to say Turkey just stopped trying to become European.

But now, Mr Trump’s presidency may be changing that equation. With security considerations uppermost in European minds, no less a personage than Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte has reportedly been urging EU leaders to consider greater engagement with Turkey.

After all, Turkey is part of the defence alliance and its capabilities are formidable. It has everything — from drones to artillery shells, to strategic air bases and Nato’s largest fleet of F-16 fighter jets after the US.

Mr Erdogan has already boasted that, “To put it plainly, establishing European security in the absence of Türkiye is inconceivable.”

Would the reward be EU membership?

— CREDIT: X-TWITTER/REPUBLIC OF TÜRKIYE DIRECTORATE OF COMMUNICATIONS —

Turkey is thinking slightly smaller right now, say, a customs or a visa-free travel agreement with the EU.

Of course, Europeans would probably consider visa-free travel a big issue but Turkey might be gambling on the oldest calculation in the book: Countries, like individuals, will pay almost any price for bodily safety.