MINSK, 15 October (BelTA) – Türkiye no longer needs to join the EU. It will get an opportunity to call the shots there, Kirill Koktysh, political scientist, associate professor of the Department of Political Theory of MGIMO University at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, said in a new episode of the V Teme [On Point] project on BelTA's YouTube channel.
"We all know that the Turkish leader has been brilliantly pursuing a policy of exceptional opportunism. He has clear goals of his own. You can reach an agreement with him only if your and his goals coincide. We need to understand that the strategic goals, of course, diverge quite a lot," Kirill Koktysh said.
According to him, Erdogan does not miss an opportunity to remind Europe that Türkiye was the Ottoman Empire in the past. "He makes Sweden and Finland 'kiss the Sultan's shoe'. And they end up doing it," he said. “Erdogan shows that Türkiye, in fact, no longer needs to join the European Union. It will rule the European Union. Erdogan will get an opportunity to control the economy of Europe even at the level of verbal interventions. This is already having a 'sobering up' effect on quite a few heads of Europe against the background of the unprecedented destruction of industry, which is happening today, say, in Germany.
