Turkey and Europe must act together to prevent greater chaos

To address today’s challenges, Europe and Turkey must build a partnership based on their common interests, particularly security, writes Ana Palacio

Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane risks opening a new front in the violence engulfing Syria, thereby dashing the hopes for a rapprochement between Russia and the West that had arisen in the wake of the Paris massacre.

With Russian president Vladimir Putin and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan now engaged in a war of words, and given the nightmare scenario of something far worse, it is more important than ever that the European Union do all that it can to reinvigorate its ties with Turkey.