Battle continues: Erdoğan vs Merkel

The Germans are key players in the EU, and if it wants to be part of that ever-closer union, Turkey had to make a strong move to improve ties with the country; however, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ruling party has joined the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (AECR) -- a Euroskeptic party -- after a long period as an “observer” within the largest political group in the European Union, the Christian Democrats (EPP).

The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is deeply disappointed by its treatment at the hands of the Christian Democrats, who are mostly against Turkish membership in the EU. However, considering German Chancellor Angela Merkel was the winner of the German elections for the third time in September, the AK Party had to look for a way to improve its ties with Germans.

Taking such a step shows that the ruling AK Party, which had introduced a EU Ministry in its third consecutive term to especially deal with the country's bid to join the EU, seems like it had given up the long battle spanning half a century to join the union.

Not so long after the AK Party's AECR move, German parties negotiating a coalition government said the EU may not be able to accept Turkey as a member, while reiterating that the EU's "privileged relationship" with Ankara should be developed further.

Like many European diplomats, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt has also expressed his frustration with the AK Party joining the AECR via his Twitter account, where he said, "If I did not have to be diplomatic, I would have called this move by Turkey AKP [AK Party] profoundly stupid.”

Germany has long opposed full EU membership for Turkey, and the relationship has been rocky in recent years, slowing Turkey's EU progress. In June, the resumption of negotiations was delayed after Merkel convinced other EU members to block the reopening of membership talks following the Gezi Park protests.

A series of unfortunate events involving Germany's Turkish population has also contributed significantly to the deterioration in the relationship between the two countries, including several arson attacks against Turks living in Germany and Erdoğan telling huge crowds of Turks to stand against assimilation in his Germany visits.

Yet Erdoğan seemed unfazed when he once again visited Germany in 2011, telling a Turkish crowd: “Our children must learn German … but they must first learn good Turkish.” His comments only further aggravated some of the already-exasperated members of Merkel's government.

Following Erdoğan's ongoing attempts to pose as a representative of nearly 3 million German Turks, a German court decided not to allocate seats for the Turkish media to cover the trial of a member of Germany's National Socialist Underground (NSU), a neo-Nazi terrorist cell, that began in May this year. The NSU is alleged to have murdered 10 people, of which eight were of Turkish origin.

The ups and downs in the relationship between Erdoğan's Turkey and Merkel's Germany seem to be inevitable. Statements made by Turkey's chief EU negotiator, Egemen Bağış, certainly summarize Turkey's relations with Germany. In June, he claimed that Merkel faced the same fate as French President Nicolas Sarkozy if she continued her election campaign with anti-Turkey moves. Merkel, however, won the elections for the third time, which led Bağış to say: “Turkish-German relations are a privileged partnership today.”

While some other EU countries -- notably France -- also hold longstanding objections to Turkish membership, Germany clearly has one of the loudest voices in the 28-member crowd. Turkey would do well to keep its relations with the European powerhouse in mind as it continues to negotiate the EU acquis.