Those were the hopeful days with the EU

What a beautiful night it was… What a nice dream… What wonderful hopes they were… The whole country was waiting for the decision from Brussels…

That night on Oct. 5, 2005, then Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan, insisting on pursuing Turkey's membership of the European Union, was enshrined in all of our hearts. Then Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül was respected by everyone. 

What a nice night it was. It took our breath away. Our neighbors were also rejoicing that they would become neighbors of the EU. 

We would become a member of the EU, a region of democracy and welfare- that respects human rights. 

That beautiful dream was been suspended on Nov. 24 with the vote of the European Parliament. 

Eleven years ago, it was decided that Turkey's accession talks to the EU would begin. Now, the European Parliament has recommended that the talks be suspended. 

We have come to an ominous junction. 

It is time to think, once again. That goes for both for them and us. It is time to leave aside demagoguery and conflict. It is time to make a decision based on the mutual interests of all parties.  

Let's conduct an exercise; a test on where you want to see your country go. 

For example, would you send your child to a member of the Shanghai Five, or to the EU? If you had the means, where would you send your child abroad for their education? Would you send them to a Western country, like presidents Turgut Özal, Abdullah Gül and Tayyip Erdoğan have done? Or would you send them to a member country of the Shanghai Five such as Russia, China or India?  

A second question: Where are the Syrian refugees trying to go? Did 90 percent of them go to Turkey and to countries west of Turkey, including the EU? Or...