Turkey is looking into joining a Chinese and Russian led alliance known as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Erdogan said he met with the SCO leaders and expressed his interest in joining the Eurasian political, economic, and military alliance as an alternative to joining the European Union, which has not been receptive to Turkey’s repeated bids for membership. France, Germany, and Belgium — home to Brussels, where the EU is headquartered — have long opposed Turkey’s accession into the EU.
Erdogan’s reluctance to sign on to certain membership requirements and his increasingly authoritarian leadership over Turkey have also sparked concern among European leaders. It seems Erdogan feels much more comfortable and at home among the authoritarian regimes of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
Joining in the Shanghai bloc — which is heavily influenced by Russia and China — would rattle the West, and it would drastically alter relations with the US and NATO; where it would be viewed as a rejection of the Western alliance who has concerns about Russian expansionism.