By Costas Iordanidis

The European Commission’s report marks out the parameters of the long and arduous process of incorporating Turkey into the European Union, which will result in fundamental changes to the Commission as well as the Muslim country, which is now vacillating between East and West.

Essentially, Turkey now has the chance to become a fully fledged parliamentary democracy, thus thwarting the influence of the military.

Turkey’s traditional establishment came under fire by the democratic governments of the European Union due to its political activities, but it could be maintained that this regime preserved the country’s integrity and national interests, often at the cost of neighboring countries and chiefly at the expense of Cyprus.

But in an era of the deconstruction of the nation state, Turkey’s traditional regime constituted an anachronism, prompting an EU-oriented reaction by a group of businessmen, politicians, intellectuals and diplomats.

The challenge faced by the Turkish elite today is how democratic principles and procedures imposed by the EU can be implemented without provoking disruptions in a country where the large Kurdish minority has sparked constant political turmoil for decades.

In any case, Turkey had no choice but to follow the EU road, which allows it to safeguard its cohesion as well as exploiting its geostrategic position and military strength...