While the United States and Europe may never have warm relations with Turkey, a clear and functional relationship, built around a mutually shared understanding of the other sides’ red lines could make cooperation on issues easier to pursue.
Turkey presents a powerful case where idealism and pragmatism meet. Pushing for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law not only serves Western ideals but also Western interests.
Turkey and multilateral institutions alike, including the European Union, were already struggling with political and economic crises in the years before the pandemic multiplied the sense of catastrophe. As they seek to pull themselves out of the depths of Covid-19, it is time to set aside the divisions that have long stalled progress for all of them, and seek recovery in cooperation and mutual benefit.
It is of vital importance that rescuees are brought to a “Place of Safety”. The study analysis to which extend third countries can be considered "safe" and NGO rescue vessels can be obliged to disembark rescued migrants and refugees in places which are unsafe.
