Among the European Union’s neighbors, Turkey and
Ukraine stand out in their strategic importance. Both countries are central to
the broader confrontation between Russia and the West and occupy critical
positions in the Black Sea region. Turkey holds the keys to Europe’s ability to
manage the refugee crisis and to Western engagement with Middle East conflicts,
and Ukraine is as important a trendsetter for developments in the post-Soviet
space as Turkey is for the Muslim world.
However, European policy toward both countries has not
lived up to their key strategic positions and potential. Turkish and Ukrainian
societies have been coalescing and are taking an ever-more active part in their
countries’ politics, illustrated by the series of social and political
mobilizations that Turkey and Ukraine have witnessed over the past decade. The
shifting sociopolitical grounds in both countries have not been sufficiently
appreciated by external actors.
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