“I personally think that if there is anything to the notion that Turkey is, if you will, moving eastward, it is, in my view, in no small part because it was pushed, and pushed by some in Europe refusing to give Turkey the kind of organic link to the West that Turkey sought,” Mr. Gates said, according to the agency reports.

“We have to think long and hard about why these developments in Turkey [are occurring] and what we might be able to do to counter them and make the stronger linkages with the West more apparently of interest and value to Turkey’s leaders,” he said…

“What Secretary Gates said is right on target,” said Tuncay Babali, a Turkish diplomat currently on sabbatical at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. “Turks are sick and tired of being judged on individual issues such as whether they support certain Western policies, rather than being accepted as a significant partner.” While he disagreed the West was “losing” Turkey, he said that at a time when U.S.-Turkish relations are strained over Iran and Israel, “the situation is very serious.”