Category: EU Members

European Council decided to open accession negotiations with Turkey on 17 Dec. 2004

Turkey’s FM sure of eventual EU membership despite critics

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt (L) arrives with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu

STOCKHOLM — Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Saturday hit out at opponents of his country’s EU aspirations, such as France and Germany, and said Turkey’s future within the European Union was assured.

“We have full confidence that our French, British and other colleagues will keep their commitment… There is no need for convincing, it is already sure that Turkey and the European Union will integrate in the future,” Davutoglu told reporters after talks with his EU counterparts in Stockholm.

Turkey, which has been knocking on Europe’s door for decades, began formal EU accession talks in 2005.

Today they are stalled by French, German and Austrian opposition as well as Ankara’s refusal to trade openly with EU member Cyprus.

EU nation Cyprus is also opposed to membership for Turkey, which is the only nation to recognise the Turkish-Cypriot statelet in the north of the island of Cyprus.

“The negative voices that we keep hearing from some countries in the EU just spread doubt among our citizens and impede our efforts to continue reforms,” Davutoglu wrote in an op-ed piece published in Sweden’s paper of reference Dagens Nyheter on Saturday.

Davutoglu said Turkey had carried out reforms that were “unthinkable just a few years ago,” citing greater freedom of religion and expression, the abolishment of the death penalty and radio broadcasts in Kurdish.

He said critics of Ankara’s EU bid were harming the country’s “silent revolution.”

“Like us, Sweden realises that Europe can never be a strong and united entity as long as Turkey remains outside the EU,” he said.

“The support from countries like Sweden, with their objective and encouraging attitude, is very important in the process,” the Turkish minister added.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner reiterated his country’s opposition to Turkish membership.

Asked about Swedish support for Ankara he replied “others (in the EU) are opposed”.

“They (the Turks) are not first on the list. We have all the Western Balkans to let in (to the EU) and that is necessary,” he added.

There was also a call on Turkey to open its ports to Cypriot ships, a main hurdle to its EU aspirations.

France and Germany have suggested a “privileged partnership” for Turkey rather than full EU membership.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.

Source: www.google.com, 6 September 2009

September 7, 2009
Kurd who posed as Turkish assassin jailed

A Kurdish delivery driver posed as an assassin targeting Turkey’s ambassador to Britain and two community leaders cost the Metropolitan Police £60,000 after a two day surveillance operation was launched.

Idris Savas was jailed for three-and-half-months as a result of his ”fantasy” claims followed news that Kurdish [ ethnic racist narco terrorist ]1 leader Abdullah Ocalan had been arrested after 14 years of [ethnic racist narco terrorist]2 warfare in south-east Turkey.

(1. and 2. are corrected by Tolga Cakir under Terrorism Act 2000 and the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001)

Alexandra Felix, prosecuting, said his detention caused ”political turmoil” and resulted ”in both civil unrest in Turkey and attacks in the UK on Turkish premises”.

London’s Southwark Crown Court heard the 37 year-old defendant, long troubled by feelings he was ”invisible” in society, was not only concerned about the developments back home but felt this was an opportunity to ”make himself feel important”.

So he picked up his pay-as-you-go mobile and first rang Sener Saglam, the head of Federation of Turkish Associations in London. He claimed he was part of an assassination squad set up by rebel Kurdish [ ethnic racist narco terrorist ]3 PKK to kill both the community leader and Turkey’s ambassador Yigit Alpogan.

(3 is corrected by Tolga Cakir under Terrorism Act 2000 and the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001)

He then called Dr Yasar Colak, an embassy official and head of the Turkish Religious Foundation, and said he, too was on the death list.

He spoke of picking up weapons in Chingford, Essex, before adding: ”I am an assassin. I have been hired to kill you.”

He also insisted he had been forced to take part and ”needed help”.

The barrister said the calls were taken ”very seriously” and both the Met’s anti-terrorist and Diplomatic Protection squads were alerted, triggering an intensive two-day surveillance operation.

Off-duty officers were called in and all leave was cancelled, leaving police with a £60,000 overtime bill.

A dedicated operations room was also set up and potential victims moved to ”safe houses”.

Savas, of Kenninghall Road, Clapton, east London, was eventually identified, arrested by armed police and subsequently admitted one count of making telephonic communications ”for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety”.

Jonathan Green, defending, told the court: ”This is a peculiar offence. Clearly it has resulted in enormous expenditure in terms of the amount of police time and money. It boils down to Mr Savas representing himself as some sort of hit man and being part of an assassination group.”

He said he accepted his client, a heroin addict for many years, had caused ”some anxiety and stress”, but insisted: ”It was clearly entirely fantasy.”

The barrister continued: ”He was a powerless, ineffective man who felt he was invisible. This was an attempt to make himself feel important. These phone calls were an attempt to glamorise himself. It was misguided and he is now extremely sorry for it. He realises the massive disruption he caused.”

Sentencing, Judge Deborah Taylor said: ”It is said on your behalf that these calls were made under the influence of drink and drugs. But it appears your addiction problems began a long time before the period of these calls.”

”Furthermore, the fact the calls had been made over a period of time … demonstrates an element of pre-planning. This was a course of conduct of a very serious nature. Whilst it is said on your behalf this was a cry for help from you it is clear it caused anxiety to those concerned due to the high-profile nature of the targets and the public cost was considerable.

”In my judgment this was towards the top of the scale for this type of offence.”

The Telegraph

September 3, 2009
Turkey seeks shield amid missile-defense negotiations

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu says it’s not so and American officials are mum, but according to a top defense lobbyist, “negotiations are ongoing” over U.S. plans to deploy a missile-defense shield in Turkey, a possibility floated last week by a Polish newspaper.

Riki Ellison, chairman of the U.S.-based Missle Defense Advocacy Alliance, or MDAA, insisted to the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that claims by the Polish newspaper are valid.

The stir began last week when the Warsaw-based daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported that U.S. President Barack Obama has “all but abandoned” plans to locate parts of a controversial U.S. missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. The newspaper said the Pentagon has been asked to explore switching planned interceptor-rocket launch sites from the two Central European states to Israel, Turkey or the Balkans.

U.S. plans to deploy a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic have created serious tension between Russia and the United States in the past. Russia has repeatedly responded to U.S. missile-defense plans with countermeasures.

It is no secret that the Obama administration’s promise to “reset” relations with Russia prompted Obama to launch a strategic review of the defense shield.

Amid the Pentagon’s search for a new strategy, last week’s reports turned heads toward Turkey. Foreign Minister Davutoğlu immediately responded to the claims, saying that the government has not received any request from the United States or NATO regarding the missile-defense project.

Ellison said he hopes to see a working missile-defense shield in operation by 2013. Ellison’s MDAA is a nonprofit organization launched in 2002 to advocate deployment of an anti-missile program.

Ellison said he believes there will be a concerted effort from the United States to work with the Turkish government to install missile shields at four bases in Turkey. “Negotiations are happening already and they will continue to go forward,” he said.

Ellison is evidently well informed on the strategy. However, Turkey’s acceptance of the missile-defense plan may not be realistic, given the risk to its relations with Russia, already frayed by other tensions. Turkey may be a U.S. ally, but Russia supplies the majority of its energy and has a hand in Turkey’s future in the Caucasus.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s Aug. 6 visit to Ankara for talks with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan secured some 20 agreements covering energy, trade and other areas, including nuclear cooperation. Russian authorities have also agreed to scrap regulations requiring the full inspection of Turkish goods at customs.

Turkey has been playing a very careful game for some time when it comes to its relations with Russia. Ankara does not want to make an enemy out of Moscow.

Accepting the deployment of U.S. defense shields in Turkey would be a major step toward a whole new round of tense Turkish-Russian relations at a critical and vulnerable time. Russia would probably play its energy card against Turkey and could even annul this year’s previous agreements.

The deployment could also have a negative impact on Turkey’s relations with its neighboring countries in the Middle East. Starting with the Turkish Parliament’s March 2003 decision to prevent the United States from invading Iraq through Turkish territory, Turkey has been trying to follow a relatively independent line in its foreign policy. Acceptance of the missile shield would destroy most of Turkey’s diplomatic capital among Middle Eastern countries, which perceived Turkey as making its own decisions after the 2003 bill.

There is another scenario that sounds more realistic: Turkey currently has no defense against ballistic missiles. According to past news reports, Turkey has been planning to purchase a missile-defense system for some time. Turkey has begun “preliminary talks with the United States, Russia, Israel and China with regard to its plans to buy its first missile defense system, worth more than $1 billion,” wrote the Daily News last year.

This invites the question: Is missile defense a matter of packaging? Might Turkey avoid allowing the United States to install a missile-defense system on her soil? Rather, might the rumors circulating stem from a bid by Turkey to buy a missile-defense system for herself?

It is hard to imagine the difference would calm Russia. It is known that Russia is firmly against any U.S. missile shields in Turkey, just as it is against the installations in Central Europe. And despite its determination to expand its military capabilities, Turkey would probably like to stay out of the struggle between Washington and Moscow.

Hurriyetdailynews

September 2, 2009
EU Parliament Rights Head Calls For Uyghur Inquiry

A U.S.-based Uyghur group issued this photo soon after the Xinxiang violence erupted, showing clashes in Urumqi.

September 01, 2009

BRUSSELS (Reuters) — The head of the European Parliament’s human rights committee has backed a call for an independent international inquiry into deadly riots in northwest China’s Xinjiang region in July.

“We have got some quite worrying information about events of July 5,” Heidi Hautala told a joint news conference with Rebiya Kadeer, exiled leader of China’s largely Muslim Uyghur ethnic group who earlier addressed the parliamentary committee.

“I believe that there is a case for an independent international investigation so that all human rights violations from all sides can be cleared and investigated,” Hautala said.

She said such an inquiry should be conducted by the United Nations with the backing of the European Union.

In Xinjiang’s worst ethnic violence in decades, Uyghur rioters attacked majority Han Chinese in Urumqi on July 5 after taking to the streets to protest against attacks on Uyghur workers at a factory in south China in June in which two Uyghurs died. Han Chinese in Urumqi sought revenge two days later.

The violence left 197 people dead, mostly Han Chinese, and wounded more than 1,600, according to official figures.

Uyghurs, a Turkic people who are largely Muslim and share linguistic and cultural bonds with Central Asia, make up almost half of Xinjiang’s 20 million people.

Kadeer said some 10,000 Uyghurs were missing following the riots and accused the Chinese Communist government of pursuing a policy resembling “cultural genocide” in what Uyghurs call East Turkestan.

She called in July on the international community to send an independent investigative team to the site of the riots.

“The arrests and detentions continue,” she told the news conference, adding that most were teenage students who, she said, were being tortured in detention.

Kadeer accused the Chinese authorities of using the international battle against Islamist militancy and the global economic downturn as pretexts to repress the Uyghur people.

https://www.rferl.org/a/EU_Parliament_Rights_Head_Calls_For_Uyghur_Inquiry/1812564.html

September 1, 2009
West Hails Turkish-Armenian Statement

Turkey – US President Barack Obama (R) meets with the foreign ministers of Armenia, Turkey and Switzerland in Istanbul, 06Apr2009

01.09.2009

The United States and the European Union have welcomed the latest agreement announced by Armenia and Turkey and urged the two estranged neighbors to promptly complete the normalization of their relations.

“The United States warmly welcomes the joint statement made today by Turkey and Armenia, with Swiss participation, outlining further steps in the normalization of their bilateral relations,” U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said late Monday.

“It has long been and remains the position of the United States that normalization should take place without preconditions and within a reasonable timeframe,” he said. “We urge Armenia and Turkey to proceed expeditiously, according to the agreed framework as described in today’s statement.”

The Turkish-Armenian statement, which set concrete time frames for the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two states and reopening of their border, also drew strong praise from the EU on Tuesday. Javier Solana, the bloc’s foreign and security policy chief, called it a “crucial step towards normalization of bilateral relations.”

“I commend the courage and vision of both sides to move forward with this historic process,” Solana said in a statement. “I hope the two protocols can be signed, ratified, and implemented in the near term.”

“The European Commission attaches high importance to a rapid and steady implementation of the protocols on the establishment of diplomatic relations and on the development of bilateral relations,” read a separate statement by Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Olli Rehn, the EU commissioners for external relations and enlargement respectively. “This agreement should contribute to peace and stability in the South Caucasus.”

Both the EU and the U.S. have been highly supportive of the unprecedented Turkish-Armenian rapprochement that gained momentum with Turkish President Abdullah Gul’s historic September 2008 visit to Yerevan. Washington is understood to have also been involved in fence-mending negotiations held by Turkish and Armenian diplomats over the past year. U.S. President Barack Obama personally encouraged Ankara and Yerevan to bring the process to a successful conclusion when he visited Turkey in April.

https://www.azatutyun.am/a/1812260.html

September 1, 2009
Turkey’s Multivector Energy Hub: Ignore At Your Own Peril

Chums: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right) meets with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Ankara on August 6.

August 31, 2009

By Alexandros Petersen

According to Turkey’s popular “Zaman” newspaper, the country can now claim the title of “world’s largest energy hub.”

While over a decade of government policy has sought to transform Turkey’s energy sector into first a European, then a regional, and now a global energy hub, a rash of recent international agreements, according to “Zaman,” have enabled Turkey to finally attain that status.

Deals with European Union member states on the Nabucco natural-gas pipeline, with Russia on the competing South Stream project, with Qatar on liquefied natural gas and a possible pipeline, with Azerbaijan on gas supplies for its isolated Nakhchivan autonomous region, and with Syria on a gas-import deal have kept Turkey’s energy aspirations in the headlines.

These developments should not come as a surprise.

For those looking at the big picture, Anatolia’s tailor-made to be the geographic center of crisscrossing pipelines, inputs, and outlets for the flow of hydrocarbon resources. Turkey is surrounded by the world’s largest natural-gas reserves — Russia, the greater Caspian region, Iran, Iraq, the Gulf and Egypt — and one of the world’s greatest markets, the European Union.

Decision makers in Ankara certainly see this big picture, and with projects like Nabucco are pushing to realize Turkey’s potential.

Their counterparts in Brussels and other European capitals, however, often do not see the same picture.

Turkey, for European decision makers, is the alternative energy corridor to the resources of the Caspian, a thoroughfare to connect EU consumers with producers such as Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, allowing for supply diversification and less dependence on problematic Russian reserves.

This limited view often leads to incongruent policies between Ankara and Brussels, not to mention already Turkey-skeptical leaders such as France’s Nicholas Sarkozy and Germany’s Angela Merkel. The prolonged and difficult negotiations over Nabucco are just one example.

EU Myopia

European energy policies, to the extent that there has been any unity of focus on reaching alternative reserves, have yet to take into account the enormous potential of genuinely partnering with Turkey as a global energy hub — as opposed to just hammering out a deal with Turkey because it controls the territory between the EU and the Caspian.

It goes without saying that this myopia has led to complacency in Turkey’s EU accession process. One of the world’s largest markets for hydrocarbons has yet to open energy negotiations with the world’s largest energy hub, right on its doorstep.

Most regrettably, this limited view of Turkey’s energy role among Western decision makers has contributed to an overall trans-Atlantic sense of “the loss of Turkey.” Ankara’s deals with Moscow on South Stream are seen as undermining the strategic Western-oriented Nabucco project. Turkish policymakers’ openness to including Russia and Iran in projects that are at least partly meant to strengthen the sovereignty of those powers’ smaller neighbors — and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s chummy relationship with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin — have more than just raised eyebrows in Washington and Brussels.

But, again, that view ignores the bigger map on the tables of Ankara. Turkey’s energy ambitions have evolved into a fully fledged multivector policy. And, given Turkey’s overwhelming dependence on Russian natural gas for its own consumption, it is surprising that Ankara is still so open to Western-oriented projects.

To deny Turkey’s multivector energy policies and potential would be to take Ankara for granted. It is a losing proposition for proponents of Western-oriented projects such as Nabucco to expect not to compete with counteroffers from the other major energy players in Turkey’s neighborhood.

It behooves Western decision makers to fully appreciate Turkey’s energy big picture or risk upcoming surprises such as Armenian electricity exports to Turkey and a Russia-dominated Turkish nuclear sector. The “world’s largest energy hub” headline is not only aimed at puffing up chests in Turkey, but at turning heads in Europe and the United States.

Alexandros Petersen is Dinu Patriciu fellow for trans-Atlantic energy security and associate director of the Eurasia Energy Center at the Atlantic Council. The views expressed in this commentary are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL.

https://www.rferl.org/a/Turkeys_Multivector_Energy_Hub_Ignore_At_Your_Peril/1811254.html

August 31, 2009