Who would suffer most from Turkey's break with EU?

One of the most important messages delivered by EU Minister Ömer Çelik at a recent meeting with the Ankara bureau chiefs of media outlets was that the Turkish government is not willing to turn current spats with the Netherlands and Germany into a fresh source of tension with the European Union. 

Çelik stressed that some of Ankara's rivals, in Europe and elsewhere, are rubbing their hands with glee in the hope that its ties with the EU will be broken as a result of such a crisis, which is why Turkey's continued engagement with Brussels is important. 

However, although he reiterated Ankara's willingness to continue its engagement with the EU, messages voiced by senior Turkish leaders, including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, indicate the opposite. 

In a televised interview broadcast late on March 13, Erdoğan suggested that Turkey could revise its relationship with the EU, on the grounds that the bloc failed to keep its promises on a number of issues since negotiations began a decade ago. He went further, asserting that the EU had lost its place as the symbol of the democracy and human rights while vowing that Turkey will seek to mobilize other key international organizations, particularly the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), against the rise of fascism in Europe that directly affects Turks, Muslims and all foreigners in the continent. 

His typically strong-worded language described the Netherlands as a "rogue state" committing "state terror," slammed German Chancellor Angela Merkel as no different from the Dutch authorities who attacked Turkish protesters with dogs and horses, and claimed that the entire continent had surrendered to "neo-Nazis."

In addition, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş hinted that...