Turkey in the European Union, still an option?

It has been 33 years since Turkey applied to join the European Union, and it has not yet managed to become a full Member State. However, we have seen that other countries that applied later than Turkey, such as the Eastern European countries like Romania, Bulgaria or Poland, or the most recent one, Croatia, managed to enter the European Union without any difficulty.

Why is this the case? What is the difference between the eastern countries and Turkey that can delay or shorten the process of joining the EU? First, one explanation is the historical opportunity to incorporate these countries into the EU following the fall of the Soviet Union and thereby prevent them from falling into the sphere of influence of the new Russian Federation, which made the former Soviet countries an urgent priority. Second, the marked cultural and religious difference between Turkey and the Eastern countries, this second one being more akin and similar to Western Europe.

However, is this difference so remarkable? After all, Turkey has been settled on European land since 1355, when it invaded the Dardanelles Strait of the dying Byzantine Empire. Moreover, although it is a Muslim country, during the rule of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1923–1938) a policy of westernisation was undertaken in order to make it similar to modern European states. The state was declared…