Quote of the Day

Patrick Smith, writing in The Fiscal Times, about the unrest in Turkey, the opposition to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's attempt to strengthen the presidency which he will accept next year, and Turkey's desire to join the EU:

Turkey’s problems—autocracy, Islamic democracy, modernization, westernization—are the Middle East’s problems. Its lessons are for the Middle East to learn. The distance from Europe has grown.

For Europeans watching the riots in Turkey, Turkey's distance from Europe grows every day. It becomes less "European" in the minds of the citizens of the EU.