@Gabriel92
I didn't say Turkey bombing ISIS/Kurds was a bigger deed than France.
In my opinion, French intervention in Africa and Turkish intervention in Syria are
both not very significant events...
I specifically laid out how Turkey has been playing greater international role in the region compared to UK/Germany or even France (from geopolitical perspective).
Anyways, I don't know why you Europeans are kind of lacking comprehension. I just stated that UK, France, and Germany---over-all--are more powerful nation-states. Why ya'll keep bringing the point "But France is more powerful than Turkey?"...Like hello, I already said that.
My point is that Europeans (Germany/UK etc) haven't been active much beyond their borders geopolitical. They have cut down their militaries, and haven't taken independent geopolitical leads without U.S leadership, and are generally focused on economic activity. I might be wrong, but whatever.
The fact is, as I said:
Turkey is
easily the fourth most powerful nation-state in Europe. It is the greatest power in Central and Eastern Europe.
Turkey is on path to be able to become a "projecting" power in Mediterranean (with induction of LHD and F-35s on deck)---and with already having a bigger military than France and UK--Turks do seem poise to close the gap between themselves and Western European powers.
In Eastern/Central Europe--Turkey has no match.
And remember, unlike Spain, Italy, UK, France etc--Turkey is well poised to continue to make huge investments in industry, military, power projection, infrastructure, energy, and so on--because unlike European states--with their Debt-to-GDP ratios of near 100%!!--Turkey's debt to GDP ratio is barely 32%...and they are also closing the budget deficit every year.
This means that the nation of 80 million has huge financial cushion to consolidate and expand even further! That's the reason we see Turkey partnering in F-35 project and making a deal of buying 116 F-35s, LHDs, investments in new tank, and even talk about starting their own fifth generation fighter program and are currently constructing the largest airport on planet--upon completion, Turkey will become the
largest travel hub of entire Europe.
And they are doing all this with around 1% budget deficit!! While France already has a budget deficit of near 5% and a debt-to-GDP ratio of 93%!! They are in no position to finance mega projects like Turkey can.
Turkey haven't reached their full potential--and they have lots of room to grow--and they are already a powerhouse of Europe with 77 million+ population, bigger land area than UK, Poland, Germany, France, etc, dynamic young population, largest military in Europe, almost a trillion dollar economy, and so on.
In future, if Turkey is allowed in the EU, you can just tell--Turkey will be a very key leader in Europe along with Germans etc.