“Sick man of Europe” was Ottoman Turkey's epithet in the 19th century. It is attributed to Russian Czar Nicholas I, but no one is sure. It is based on correspondence between two British diplomats prior to the 1856 Crimean War. Sir George Hamilton Seymour, the British ambassador in St. Petersburg, in a letter to Sir John Russell, is said to have quoted the czar as saying, "A very sick patient. Sick man.” These remarks stuck as characterization of 19th century Ottoman Turkey, but it took another 65 years and a world war for the Ottoman Empire to collapse. Along with the empire, czarist Russia was also erased from history.
After nearly two centuries now, no one calls Turkey the “sick man of Europe." Regardless, Turkey has not succeeded in getting itself accepted by Europe. Its request for full membership in the European Union appears to be a hopeless venture. Though full membership negotiations between Turkey and EU began in the fall of 2005, they lost momentum with the stalling of Sarkozy’s France and Angela Merkel’s Germany, two backbones of the EU. Turkey’s passion for integration with Europe cooled off considerably in the second decade of 2000s. We can’t say that the European Union, engulfed in a multitude of its own problems, is particularly keen on seeing Turkey as a member. But Croatia, which started full membership negotiations at the same time, became the 28th member of the EU as of July 1, 2013.
