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July 25, 2008
Compiled by Sonay Kanber , ATAA Research Associate |
| HURRIYET ENGLISH: Foreign minister says Turkey wants to normalize relations with Armenia
Turkey is willing to normalize its relations with the neighboring Armenia, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said late on Thursday. Turkey wanted to create an atmosphere of dialogue with Armenia, Babacan told a press conference in New York. “Turkish president, prime minister and foreign minister sent letters to their Armenian counterparts after recent elections in Armenia, and these letters aimed to open a new door of dialogue with the new (Armenian) administration,” he was quoted as saying by the Anatolian Agency. As a signal of efforts to revive relations between the two countries, Turkish and Armenian officials held a series of secret meetings in the capital of Switzerland on July 8. This meeting Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s proposal for “a fresh start” with the goal of normalizing relations with Turkey and opening the border. Sargsyan also invited Turkish President Abdullah Gul to watch a football match between the two country’s national teams on Sept 6 to mark “a new symbolic start in the two countries’ relations”. Turkey has been evaluating this invitation. Although Turkey is among the first countries that recognized Armenia when it declared its independency, there is no diplomatic relations between two countries as Armenia presses the international community to admit the so-called “genocide” claims instead of accepting Turkey’s call to investigate the allegations, and its invasion of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory despite U.N. Security Council resolutions on the issue. The foreign minister said that Turkey’s aim was to have zero problems with its neighbors. “Naturally, we are also expecting some concrete steps from the other party,” he said. [link to article] He is actually in New York City to lobby for Turkey’s candidacy for a non-permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council. Turkey would work hard till the last minute to secure a non-permanent seat at the Security Council, Babacan told at the conference, adding there was a lot of hope for Turkey to attain a non-permanent seat at the Council. “However, it is important to work hard till the last minute to secure a non-permanent seat,” Babacan said. “It is likely that the election for the non-permanent seat at the U.N. Security Council would take place in October 2008. We would attend the U.N. General Assembly meetings in September with Turkish President Abdullah Gul. Both President Gul and I would have many bilateral talks. We would continue lobbying for Turkey’s non-permanent membership in the U.N. Security Council,” Babacan said. The U.N. Security Council is composed of five permanent members – China, France, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States, and ten non-permanent members. Turkey competes with Austria and Iceland for the term of 2009-2010. Ten non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms and are not eligible for immediate re-election. Turkey held a seat in the Security Council in 1951-52, 1954-55 and 1961. Turkey would need the votes of 128 countries out of a total of 192 countries in order to be elected as a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. Babacan also said he saw the appointment of Alexander Downer, Australia’s former foreign minister as the new U.N. special representative for Cyprus, as an important signal that the organization would more closely and seriously deal with the Cyprus problem. “The U.N. should intervene in settlement of Cyprus problem,” he also said. He added Turkey wished wish that comprehensive talks would be launched in Cyprus soon. [link to article] IHT: Turkey’s broadening crisis Turkey is facing a domestic political crisis that not only threatens the country’s internal stability but could weaken its ties to the West and exacerbate instability in the Middle East. In February, the Turkish public prosecutor forwarded a 161-page indictment to the Constitutional Court that calls for the governing Justice and Development Party, or AKP, to be closed down and for 71 of its leading politicians, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, to be banned from politics for five years. The indictment charges that the party violated secularism, a fundamental principle enshrined in the Turkish Constitution. The Constitutional Court starts final hearings in the case on Monday. While the evidence is flimsy, most Turks, including leading members of the AKP, expect that the Constitutional Court, a bastion of secularism, will vote to close the party. Indeed, the AKP has already begun to make preparations for its dissolution. Closing the AKP will not eliminate the party as an important force in Turkish political life. The party will simply re-emerge under a new name, as its predecessors Refah and the Virtue Party did when they were banned. However, closure would likely have a number of damaging side effects. One would be in Turkey’s relations with the Middle East. Under the AKP, Turkey has emerged as an important diplomatic actor in the region – as its successful effort to act as a broker in peace talks between Israel and Syria recently underscored. Without the AKP, Turkey’s active diplomatic engagement in the Middle East is likely to diminish and the United States would lose an important partner in trying to stabilize this volatile region. Another unwanted side effect would be in Turkey’s relations with its Kurdish minority. The AKP enjoys strong support among the Turkish Kurds. In elections last summer the party doubled its support in the Kurdish areas of the Southeast. If the AKP is closed, the main beneficiary is likely to be the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has been conducting terrorist attacks against Turkey from sanctuaries in Northern Iraq. Moreover, the main Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party, is also likely to be closed. Thus the Kurds would have no political vehicle to express their interests except through the PKK. In addition, Turkey’s rapprochement with Iraq could lose valuable momentum, while the hand of those forces in Turkey pushing for stronger military action against the PKK in Northern Iraq is likely to be strengthened. This could lead to an escalation of tensions between Turkey and the Kurdistan Regional Government in Northern Iraq, undercutting American efforts to promote better ties between the two entities. Finally, closure of the AKP is likely to increase strains in Turkey’s relations with the European Union. Opponents of Ankara’s EU membership will use the closure as a pretext to intensify their opposition, while supporters will find it harder to make the case for Turkish membership. At the same time, banning the party could undercut efforts to promote reform and democracy in the Middle East. Many moderate Islamists in the Middle East are likely to see the party’s closure as proof that it is impossible to achieve their political goals by democratic means and could turn to more radical solutions. So far the United States has avoided taking sides, expressing support for both secularism and democratic processes. However, given the negative strategic consequences likely to flow from the closure of the AKP, the Bush administration should encourage the Turks to find a compromise before the crisis does untold damage to Turkey’s democratic credibility and international reputation and further complicates Ankara’s prospects for EU membership. If, after all that, the AKP is still closed, the United States should avoid taking punitive measures. That would only strengthen the hand of the hard-line nationalists and further weaken Turkey’s ties to the West. Instead, American officials should continue to nudge Turkey toward bolder reforms that will strengthen internal democracy and bolster the qualifications for EU membership. In the long run, this is the best way to ensure the emergence of a stable, democratic Turkey closely anchored to the West. F. Stephen Larrabee, co-author of “The Rise of Political Islam in Turkey,” holds the corporate chair in European Security at the RAND Corporation. [link to article] NICOSIA (AFP) – Rival Cypriot leaders met on Friday aiming to set a date for peace talks to end the island’s 34-year-old divide, with the Turkish Cypriots hoping for a deal by the end of this year. President Demetris Christofias, a Greek Cypriot, and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat met at the UN-controlled Nicosia airport in the buffer zone amid hopes both sides will announce a September start for full peace talks. On Thursday Talat said he wanted intensive negotiations. “Our objective is to reach a settlement in a short time… I believe we can make it by the end of 2008,” he told Turkey’s Anatolia news agency. “Starting from September, we have four months… This much time is sufficient. It can be extended a little bit if necessary, but resolving the Cyprus question in a short time must be our primary objective.” The international community remained cautious ahead of Friday’s meeting, but the United States and Britain have both boosted diplomatic links with the two sides. The lack of a Cyprus settlement is viewed as a major stumbling block to Turkey’s European Union ambitions. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wants direct negotiations to start soon, and he has named Australia’s former foreign minister Alexander Downer as his special envoy for Cyprus. Downer, 56, is expected to be present if a renewed peace initiative is launched in earnest. An agreement between Christofias and Talat, both regarded by the international community as “pro-settlement,” is seen as the best chance for peace since a failed UN reunification blueprint in April 2004. On July 1 they agreed in principle on single citizenship and sovereignty in a reunified island and vowed to meet on July 25 for a “final review” of preparatory negotiations before launching peace talks proper. Christofias has warned against outside pressure for a quick-fix settlement, saying it would only backfire, and has refused to accept deadlines or restrictive time frames.
He was elected president in February on a platform of reviving reunification talks which went nowhere under his hardline predecessor Tassos Papadopoulos.
Initial euphoria at the prospects of a settlement dampened as both sides found the going sluggish at the committee level over the sensitive issues of property, territory, sovereignty and security.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops occupied its northern third in response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup seeking enosis, or union with Greece.
Thousands of Greek Cypriots living in the north fled south and Turkish Cypriots fled north, with both communities abandoning property.
Displaced Greek Cypriots outnumbered Turkish Cypriots by about four to one — roughly the same proportion as the 1974 population.
The Turkish Cypriots nationalised Greek Cypriot land and property and most of it was distributed to Turkish Cypriots displaced from the south and to settlers from Turkey.
The two leaders reached a landmark agreement on March 21 to begin fully fledged peace talks after four years of virtual stalemate following the 2004 rejection of a UN peace plan by the Greek Cypriots.
They met again in May and decided to review progress made by the technical committees.
The Greek Cypriots say real progress at the committee stage must be achieved if face-to-face talks are to have any chance of success, while the Turkish Cypriots say any difficulties can be resolved at the negotiating table. [link to article] REUTERS: Turkish court convicts former Kurd party head- agency Nurettin Demirtas had resigned as leader of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in April to do his military service, which he had previously avoided on health grounds. Prosecutors had accused him of using fake health reports to avoid being called up. “The air force military court sentenced the former DTP leader Nurettin Demirtas to one year in prison for ‘seeking to avoid military service by deception’,” Anatolian said. No further details were immediately available. Military service usually lasts about 15 months in Turkey and is obligatory for all able-bodied Turkish men. Turks who dodge military service usually receive stiff punishment. Prosecutors, who say the DTP has links with the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrilla group, were seeking a 2-5 year prison sentence for him. He had rejected the charges. Demirtas is not a member of parliament but was elected head of the party last November. A new leader has been elected since he stood down in April. The DTP is facing a Constitutional Court case brought by prosecutors seeking its closure over alleged links to the PKK. The party rejects the charges. The PKK took up arms against the state in 1984 with the aim of creating a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey. Some 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict. (Reporting by Daren Butler, editing by Mary Gabriel) [link to article] The project is one of several linking oil-rich Azerbaijan and Central Asia with Turkey and European markets while bypassing Russia.
A groundbreaking ceremony in Kars Thursday marked the start of the 50 mile (76 kilometer) Turkish section of the 110 mile (180 kilometer) railroad.
“We are launching the iron Silk Road,” Turkey’s Abdullah Gul said. “It will link China in Asia to London.”
The Silk Road was an ancient Asian trading route. The railway will be operational in 2011. [link to article] XINHUA: Turkey’s free trade volume increases in first half of 2008 ANKARA, July 25 (Xinhua) – Trade volume in Turkey’s free zones increased 12 percent in the first half of 2008 compared with the same period of 2007, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported on Friday. Turkey‘s trade volume reached 13.3 billion U.S. dollars in this period, according to the report. The report said that trade volumes in the first half of 2008 were 3.2 billion dollars in Istanbul Leather Free Zone, 2.05 billion dollars in Aegean Free Zone, and 1.9 billion dollars in Istanbul Ataturk Airport. According to figures released by Foreign Trade Undersecretariat, trade volume of Istanbul Leather Free Zone was 3.06 billion dollars, while it was 2.1 billion dollars in Aegean Free Zone and 1.6 billion dollars in Istanbul Ataturk Airport in the first six months of 2007. Highest trade volume was recorded with OECD and EU countries with 4.9 billion dollars in the first half of 2008. Trade volume with 25 EU-states was 4.03 billion dollars, and 932.2 million dollars with OECD countries. Free zones take place within borders of a country, but regulations regarding customs, tax, foreign exchange, price, quality and standards are not applied in these zones. [link to article] HURRIYET ENGLISH: Turkey seeks support of UN’s Ban for Council seat Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan asked U.N. Secretary General to support the country’s bid for a non-permanent seat at the Security Council, as he continued his lobby efforts in New York. Babacan met Ban in New York late on Wednesday.
The U.N. Security Council is composed of five permanent members – China, France, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States, and ten non-permanent members. Turkey competes with Austria and Iceland for the term of 2009-2010.
Ten non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms and are not eligible for immediate re-election. Turkey held a seat in the Security Council in 1951-52, 1954-55 and 1961.
Ban said he closely monitored Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Iraq, and added his visit was a successful one.
Erdogan paid earlier this month an official visit to Iraq to boost mutual political and economic relations, as the first Turkish prime minister to visit the neighboring country after 18 years.
Babacan also held talks with the representatives of Jewish establishments in the United States, and informed them on the election procedure on non-permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, the agency added. Jewish lobby traditionally are among the biggest supporters of Turkey.
The representatives also told Babacan that they were closely following Turkey’s policies on Iran’s nuclear works.
Turkish foreign minister also had meetings with representatives of Arab League and Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in New York. The representatives told Babacan that they appreciated Turkey’s efforts for establishment of a prosperous Middle East. [link to article] XINHUA: Iranian president to visit Turkey late August ANKARA, July 25 (Xinhua) — Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to pay a visit to Turkey next month at the invitation of his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul, Turkish Daily News reported on Friday. Ahmadinejad’s potential visit has been on the agenda for a longtime but could not be finalized due to both the international crisis over Iran’s nuclear program and Turkey’s presidential and general elections that took place last year, according to the report. The two neighboring countries have boosted economic, trade, energy and security ties in recent years and the energy ministers of the two sides recently signed a preliminary agreement on transferring Iranian natural gas through Turkish territory and allowing Turkish companies to develop three Iranian natural gas fields in southern Iran. A couple of documents focusing on economic relations would be signed during the presidential visit, the report added. Turkey‘s close energy and trade ties with Iran are not welcomed by the United States, which argues that they would encourage Iran not to cooperate with the international community to solve the nuclear program issue. Turkey, on the other hand, says that its close ties with Iran allow it to dispatch the international community’s message to Tehran as openly as possible. Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said earlier that Turkey has no formal mediation mission but described the country’s role as “one that is, in a sense, consolidating and facilitating” the negotiations between Iran and the six major powers — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States. Babacan will meet his Iranian counterpart Manuchehr Mottaki next week in Tehran on the eve of the summit of non-aligned countries. [link to article] |
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