If you want to ask the worst country of the year, it is most likely Ukraine.
Now that the Russian army has arrived in Kiev, it is ready to take the Ukrainian capital.
The United States has been arching the fire fan wind, giving Resources to Ukraine to face Russia's thunderous anger, and will not directly help.
Many Ukrainians fled their homelands, even to the point of fragmentation. Will such a country still be envied? Yes, it is the envy of Turkey.
01 Admission to Europe
Today's global village, Turkey and Ukraine are not very powerful characters. But the geography of the two old irons is very important, and both are roles that span east and west. The reason why Ukraine is now suffering is because it wants to be pro-Western and far away from Russia.
But on the international stage, Turkish politicians are much smarter than Ukraine.
Thinking back to the time when the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine was the world's third nuclear power, and it was fooled into abolishing martial arts; the result was a good hand of cards. Zelenskiy, in particular, is often ridiculed as a comedian.
In contrast, Turkish politicians are much more shrewd, especially Erdogan, who plays an ordinary hand of cards and occasionally intimidates the UN Five.
So how can the shrewd Erdogan-led Turkey envy the desperate Ukraine? The reason is the European Union.
The EU originally did not want Russia and Ukraine to go to war, but it could not stop the riots of the two big men in the United States and Russia. However, after Russia attacked Ukraine, EU countries flooded with love, opening a special channel for Ukraine to join the EU and making Ukraine a candidate country.
On February 28, Ukrainian President Zelenskiy signed a document for Ukraine's application to join the European Union.
As things stand, Ukraine is likely to join the EU at a relatively fast pace. As we all know, the EU is rich and Ukraine is poor. If Ukraine joins the European Union, the equivalent of a poor person entering the club of the rich, the benefits are obvious.
Why does this cause turkey to be upset?
Because Turkey is a member of NATO but not a member of the European Union, it has wanted to join the European Union for decades, but it has never been allowed to get started.
Erdogan shouted at a press conference that he hoped that the EU should "treat Ukraine equally" on Turkey's application to join the EU.
Erdogan also sourly considered the EU countries "not sincere enough" and issued a soul question: "If someone attacks [us], will you put Turkey on the agenda?" ”
Judging by Erdogan's performance, Turkey is envious of the EU's treatment of Ukraine.
02 Turkey's Dream
When it comes to the Turkish dream, the old iron of the melon-eating world knows that there are two, the Ottoman Dream and the Pan-Turkic Dream.
At its peak, the Ottoman Empire was a superpower spanning three continents in Asia, Africa and Europe, and the Mediterranean Sea almost became its inland sea.
The Ottoman Empire was largely torn apart by Russia, France, and Britain. So now Erdogan is seizing every opportunity to intimidate Russia and France (Britain is too far away and there is less direct conflict).
According to Turkey's strength, the so-called Ottoman dream is similar to the Spring and Autumn Dream, which is almost impossible to achieve.
The Pan-Turkic Dream was much larger than the Ottoman Dream, and its scope included all the areas in which the Turks had been active.
Russians used to have pan-Slavism, a circle equivalent to the sum of the territories of the Warsaw Pact countries.
Turkey and Russia are feuds and compete to create a pan-Turkism.
The areas in which the Turks moved, from East Asia to Central and South Asia, to the Middle East, to the Balkans, to North Africa, were very vast.
Taken together, these places, equivalent to the peak of the Ottoman Empire plus the Iranian plateau, South Asia, Siberia, and China's Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, can be said to be extremely vast.
Of course, friends with a slightly more normal mind know that these two dreams in Turkey are basically useless. If the Ottoman dream is equivalent to the Spring and Autumn Dream, then the Pan-Turkic Dream is at most a Yellow Liang Dream.
In fact, Turkey has a third dream, the EU dream.
Compared with the unrealistic Spring and Autumn Dream and the Yellow Liang Dream, the EU Dream is a real dream of wealth.
According to Turkey's situation, joining NATO only plays the role of a thug, and joining the EU is the real sense of integrating into the circle of friends of the rich in Europe.
So Turkey is very concerned about joining the EU.
In 1987, Turkey applied to join the European Union;
However, it was not until 1999 that candidates were qualified;
It was not until 2005 that the accession negotiations were launched, but the negotiation process was hampered.
In March 2016, the EU and Turkey reached an agreement on cooperation to resolve the Syrian refugee crisis, Turkey agreed to help control the influx of refugees into Europe, and the EU promised to restart Turkey's accession negotiations and grant visa-free treatment to Turkish citizens.
But soon (in July 2016), after Erdogan suffered a military coup (attempt), he took a large-scale purges and a referendum on constitutional amendments, resulting in disputes with many EU countries.
In short, Turkey has tried so hard to join the EU's circle of friends.
Seeing that Zelenskiy, who is often derided as a comedian, could easily join the European Union, Erdogan, who thinks he has a deep skill, is certainly unbalanced.
In fact, Erdogan does not need to envy Zelenskiy, first of all, Ukraine may not be able to achieve its wishes, and secondly, many times it is really a hero of the times, and the choice is greater than the effort.
03 Why doesn't the EU want Turkey?
In 1987, when Turkey applied to join the European Union, it was told that hard targets in some areas did not meet the requirements.
Later, Turkey also tried to rectify, but it seems that it will never meet the requirements, where is the mystery?
The old irons compare the time point: 1987 was the eve of the upheavals in Eastern Europe and the collapse of the Soviet Union. At that time, the West was fooling around with globalization. At that time, the European Union threw a flattering eye at Turkey, in fact, the Xiangzhuang sword dance was intended to be Peigong, which can be understood as part of fooling the Soviet Union (inducing Gorbachev's reforms).
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Turkey's lure chip lost its value.
Although in 1999, Turkey was qualified as a candidate for state; at that time, the West blatantly bombed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and barbarically bombed the Chinese Embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, so naturally it would not take Turkey seriously.
But Turkey is still not dead-hearted and still does its best to lean towards the EU. After becoming a candidate for the European Union, Turkey has participated in various international events as a European, including celebrating "Europe Day" with Europeans, but until now the EU has treated Turkey as a temporary worker.
Erdogan is really unwilling to work as a temporary worker all the time, and is bent on taking the initiative to seek regularization, and he will not hesitate to make enemies of Russia for this reason. After the syrian unrest began, Turkey made one of the most dangerous moves, which was to shoot down Russian warplanes in order to show that it was on the same side as the West.
Unfortunately, Erdogan was not accepted. What he was waiting for was a military coup under Western control.
It is said that Erdogan almost fell asleep. At the crucial moment, Putin provided him with key information and escaped the disaster. Since then, Erdogan has improved relations with Russia, including resisting U.S. pressure to buy Russia's S400.
Seeing that he had worked hard for decades, it was not as good as Zelenskiy's mistake, and Erdogan was certainly not convinced.
Turkey is still unable to join the EU.
04 EU threshold
There are two main aspects to joining the EU:
Level 1: Compliance with all EU key standards.
The so-called key criteria, the "Copenhagen Standards" established at the European Council in Copenhagen in 1993:
(1) Guaranteeing stable institutions for democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities;
2. An effective market economy and the ability to respond to EU competition and market forces;
3. The ability to undertake and effectively fulfill the obligations of members, including adherence to the objectives of the political, economic and monetary union.
After the coup d'état, Erdogan stopped the secularization process in Turkey and turned to the path of theocracy. It is even less likely to meet EU standards.
Checkpoint 2: With the consent of eu institutions and EU member states.
This level is even more ridiculous.
Turkey's Great Turkic Dream basically offends the countries surrounding the Mediterranean, and they cannot agree to Turkey's accession to the European Union.
Greece, in particular, and Turkey are highly disputed territorially.
France also considers itself the boss of the Mediterranean and the boss of the European Union, and has no relations with Turkey.
By the above criteria, Ukraine would not have been able to join the European Union. But Russia's attack on Ukraine aroused a sense of crisis and madness in small European countries, and suddenly unified the opinions of EU member states.
Seeing this, Erdogan will issue the soul question: "If someone attacks [us], will you put Turkey on the agenda?" ”
The answer is really hard to say.