Tag: Gul

  • Turkish president in Britain for EU bid support

    Turkish president in Britain for EU bid support

    Turkish president in Britain for EU bid support

    (AFP) – 23 hours ago

    gul

    ISTANBUL — Turkish President Abdullah Gul headed to Britain on Sunday for a three-day state visit aimed at seeking support from the Turkey’s ally in its bid to join the EU.

    “I will underline the importance of England’s continued support in making sure negotiations are not blocked by artifical political obstacles,” Gul told journalists in Turkey before flying off to London.

    Ankara opened membership negotiations with the EU in 2005 but progress has been slow, in part due to opposition from Germany and France.

    Gul said in comments published in Britain’s Sunday Telegraph that his country is still keen to join the bloc even as the eurozone crisis spreads.

    One of the key sticking points to entry is Cyprus, which has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded and its northern third in response to an Athens-engineered coup in Nicosia aimed at union with Greece.

    Ankara refuses to recognise the internationally recognised Greek-Cypriot government and UN-sponsored talks aimed at reunifying the eastern Mediterranean island have so far been in vain.

    Greek-Cypriot aeroplanes and boats arriving at Turkish entry points are routinely blocked, despite agreements with the EU to allow them access.

    Turkey has threatened to freeze diplomatic relations with the EU when Cyprus takes on the rotating EU presidency for six months in July 2012 if there is no reunification deal.

    “I am going to ask England, which is part of the Cypriot question as a guarantor country, to use all its weight to push for a solution,” said Gul.

    During his visit, Gul will meet British Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband, as well as several members of the royal family.

    It is the first state visit to Britain by a Turkish president for 23 years.

    via AFP: Turkish president in Britain for EU bid support.

  • Interview: why Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul believes his country’s moment has come

    Interview: why Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul believes his country’s moment has come

    President Abdullah Gul believes Turkey can bring dynamism to the Euro-club and mediate with its strife-torn neighbours, reports Harriet Alexander in Ankara

    Turkish President 1379727c
    Turkish President Abdullah Gul gestures during a joint news conference with President Barack Obama Photo: AP

    By Harriet Alexander in Ankara

    7:22PM GMT 19 Nov 2011

    Looking out from his presidential palace, high on a hilltop above the Turkish capital, President Abdullah Gul can see trouble at the farthest gates of his nation.

    In the south, Syria’s bloody uprising grows more violent by the day, while to the east Iran continues its dangerous nuclear dance, frustrating and frightening world leaders. In the west, Greece is struggling to keep its entire economy from collapsing.

    And yet Mr Gul believes that, despite being in the middle of such drama, this is Turkey’s moment.

    “We are between Asia and Europe – we are like a bridge,” he said. “Some of us are in Asia, some in Europe. We are at the very centre of both sides.”

    That the nation of 79 million is a strong, integral part of Europe – and should be accepted as a member of the EU – is Mr Gul’s mantra. The Turkish president will be in London this week on a three-day state visit, staying at Buckingham Palace as a guest of the Queen – and the affable, British-educated president will certainly not lose the opportunity to emphasise Turkey’s potential to contribute to the EU club.

    Turkey is a natural part of Europe,” he told The Sunday Telegraph in the elegant, cream marble surroundings of his Ankara palace.

    “Being a member of the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights; being one of the oldest members of Nato, as well as being part of European culture and art – this is a natural path Turkey is flowing into.”

    Mr Gul, 61, founded Turkey’s ruling AKP party before becoming prime minister and then foreign minister. He speaks with the calm, self-assured manner of a diplomat, talking in Turkish through a translator but then interrupting in English to finesse his points.

    Several years spent at university in Exeter and London have given him a strong grounding in English, and he is already acquainted with the Queen, who visited Turkey at his invitation in 2008. His visit to London is the first by a Turkish president for 23 years.

    Above Mr Gul’s expansive desk hangs a portrait of Kemal Ataturk – the revered founder of the nation, and the original driver of Turkey’s push for western acceptance.

    Ataturk shocked Turks by wearing a suit and tie rather than typical oriental dress, and urged his countrymen to turn their backs on mystical eastern influences, and embrace western, secular ways. Were he alive today, there is no doubt that he would share Mr Gul’s desire to join the EU.

    After years of foot-dragging by some EU governments, Turkey was officially allowed to open membership negotiations in 2005, but progress has been at a snail’s pace. Britain has constantly backed its aspiration, but other EU members are opposed.

    Among them, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, has offered instead only what she calls a “privileged partnership”, which Turkey rejects, while French President Nicolas Sarkozy argues that the current discussion on increasing fiscal federalism within the EU makes enlargement “impossible”.

    Mr Gul accuses them of raising what he considers to be “artificial” concerns. “Some people who think in a narrow scope and who do lack a strategic perspective consider Turkey’s membership a burden,” he said.

    “But those who can think 30 years, 60 years ahead, and who can think about the changing trends in the economy and the changing centres of power, can understand how much strength Turkey can bring to the existing strength of Europe.

    “In the past it was only considered from the perspective of security, Turkey being a strong and old member of Nato.

    “But now, consider the potential that Turkey has: Turkey’s position, her assets, the value she can add in terms of energy resources, her population, the dynamism she can bring into Europe, and also the growth that she can bring, with Turkey being the engine of this growth.”

    Yet Turkey’s booming economy may, ironically, push it away from Europe. While EU members struggle with anaemic growth, in Turkey the annual growth rate touched 11.6 per cent during the first quarter of this year – and in the busy streets around Mr Gul’s palace, some wonder whether joining this union of floundering financial failures is such a smart move, after all.

    “Last year I supported Turkey joining the EU, but not any more,” said Yamac Guney, 33, a petroleum engineer. “Firstly, a lot of countries have been saying really negative things about Turkey. Why should we join if they don’t want us in their club? We’re economically and politically stronger now, so maybe we don’t need them.

    “Then there’s the worry that the economic problems of Italy and Greece could spread to us. And finally, the EU participation process has created a lot of new laws. Some are good and necessary, but others ban important aspects of Turkish culture.”

    Mehmet Ozgun Yar, 28, a businessman, agreed. “Most people in Turkey wanted to be in Europe five years ago, but not now. Our economy is strong, so why would we want to tie ourselves to their weak ones?”

    But Mr Gul dismisses such fears, arguing that the current problems are temporary.

    “We see the confusion, but we believe this is going to be a temporary situation within the European Union. And we approach the negotiations with a strategic vision, and are very determined.”

    That same “strategic vision” is evident in Turkey’s foreign policy, particularly its relations with such troublesome neighbours as Iran, with which it shares a 190-mile frontier.

    Mr Gul sees himself as a mediator in the escalating confrontation between Tehran’s theocratic regime and the West, and warns of a new standoff as serious as that which divided Europe for 40 years.

    “Iran is a very important country in the region, with its potential, its history and its culture,” he said. “The situation in a way is turning into another era of Cold War. And for that we are trying to eliminate the lack of trust or the lack of confidence between Iran and the Western world, trying to build confidence and acting like a catalyst, for example concerning the nuclear issue.”

    So does that mean that Mr Gul trusts the mercurial President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad enough to vouch for him internationally?

    “Rather than having confidence, our position is rather of being capable of having very open and sincere talks with Iran,” he said, picking his words with care.

    “When we say Iran, it is not only the government. There are many centres of power within Iran, and I believe our capability of having discussions with these different circles is of great value.

    “Maybe this is the first time that I’m putting it in such a clear manner, with my own words. There are different centres of power in Iran. The government, the assembly, the parliament, the religious leaders. The military is another one.”

    In neighbouring Syria, Mr Gul believes that Turkey has an important role as its views carry more weight than those of critics outside the region – but he is much blunter about the problem.

    Last week Turkey ratcheted up the pressure on President Bashar Assad, threatening to cut off the electricity supplies, and the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said the future could not be built on “the blood of the oppressed”.

    Mr Gul said: “I strongly believe that there is no place any more for authoritarian regimes – single party systems that do not have accountability or transparency – on the shores of the Mediterranean.

    “As someone who has studied in the United Kingdom, lived in the United Kingdom, has this world view, President Assad should be able to understand this.”

    Until the Arab Spring begun, the two countries enjoyed cordial – although never particularly warm – relations and Mr Gul said he had been urging his Syrian counterpart to embark on a programme of democratic reform.

    “We strongly advised him to hurry up and accelerate the pace of reforms. Otherwise, if he was not the leader of the change himself, then things would turn out to be too bad, we said to him.

    “When any kind of movement has its roots among the people of the country and the walls of fear come down, then the end result is very obvious.”

    Last week there were reports that Turkey was tacitly supporting armed insurgents preparing to attack Mr Assad’s regime across the border. Mr Gul denies that an armed offensive is being planned, but accepts that Turkey has welcomed regime opponents.

    “With a strong and clear voice we are saying that the legitimate demands of the people are being supported by us. We enable them to have their meetings and discussions in a free environment, and provide a diplomatic platform.”

    He is proud of Turkey’s support for democratic movements in the region. “Turkey is a centre of inspiration for the countries of the Middle East,” he said. “Being a Muslim country, the countries of the Middle East closely follow developments in Turkey.

    “If Turkey can achieve democratic standards, rule of law and successes in economic life, they ask ‘Why can’t we do it?’ They start questioning it. And this puts it into action. And I believe this is a major contribution.”
    Turkey’s position as a Muslim country run on secular principles brings some problems, however.

    Since Ataturk enshrined secularism in the country’s DNA, it has since been fiercely protected. But the election in 2007 of Mr Gul, a devout Muslim whose wife Hayrunnisa wears a headscarf – banned in Turkish public buildings – led to concern that the country is veering from its secular path.

    Standing outside Ataturk’s tomb – a huge mausoleum on an outcrop overlooking central Ankara, where hundreds of thousands of Turks pay their respects each year – Hussein Akay, 21, a translator, said he worried that those values were being eroded.

    “President Gul wants to be very Muslim, and that’s not right for our country,” he said. “He’s much more of an Ottoman, while Ataturk was all about freedom and Western values. I think Gul’s a good man, but I worry the country is becoming more Islamic.”

    But Mr Gul has little time for such talk. “Throughout these past 10 years, there has been much reform in law, politics and with the EU. And when you look at all of these… there is no basis for those sceptical views.

    “Turkey’s future is very open and bright and the reputation of our nation has grown as the result of all these developments.

    “When you think that Turkey is a Muslim country, being able to realise all of these methods is an extraordinary success story in the world, and for the world.

    “I believe this is a unique present that can be given in the world.” The question remains whether Europe is ready to accept it.

  • Turkish President Gul Visits Troops on Iraq Border

    Turkish President Gul Visits Troops on Iraq Border

    Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Friday made a surprise visit to Turkey’s southeast to inspect troops on the Iraq border and boost the morale of soldiers.

    The president, accompanied by Chief of General Staff Gen. Necdet Ozel, visited troops in the Yuksekova district of the border city of Hakkari.

    Media reports, citing sources working for the office of the presidency, said the visit aimed to boost the morale of soldiers and that the president’s visit will not be limited to Yuksekova. He will reportedly visit troops in other areas along the border.

    Turkey has recently seen increased violence in the Southeast by the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The group, classified as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, has killed more than 50 people, including civilians, in the past couple of months.

    via Turkish President Gul Visits Troops on Iraq Border.

  • Merkel hosts Turkey’s president for talks in Berlin

    Merkel hosts Turkey’s president for talks in Berlin

    gerGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President Abdullah Gul met in Berlin on Tuesday for talks aimed at airing issues touching on integration, EU accession and ties with Israel.

    A raft of complex issues was on the table Tuesday when German Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks with Turkish President Abdullah Gul in Berlin. Up for discussion was the sharp deterioration in relations between Turkey and Israel, as well as the long-standing conservative unease in Germany over Turkish integration.

    According to a message from government spokesman Steffen Seibert sent following the talks over the networking site Twitter, the Turkish president agreed with Merkel that good German language skills were necessary for successful integration in Germany.

    Seibert tweeted that both Merkel and Gul acknowledged “that the German language should be learned early and as well as possible,” according to the AP news agency.

    Earlier this year, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the some 3 million Turks living in Germany to integrate but not assimilate. He advised Turkish immigrants to teach their children the Turkish language before German.

    Gul touched on the subject ahead of his three-day German tour, telling public broadcaster ZDF that German immigration law violated human rights. He said the legislation was unfair because it prohibited Turkish citizens from joining a spouse in Germany unless they could prove knowledge of the German language.

    Contentious UN report

    German President Christian Wulff, right, and Turkish President Abdullah GulBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Gul, left, met with Christian Wulff on MondayAlso on the table at the chancellery was the recent flare-up in tensions between Turkey and Israel over a raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla last year which ended in the deaths of eight Turkish activists and one Turkish American.

    Turkey has expelled the Israeli ambassador to Ankara and suspended military ties with the country in the wake of a United Nations report certifying that the Jewish nation’s deadly raid was legal, despite it being heavy-handed.

    The issue is of particular importance to Germany as both Turkey and Israel are key regional partners.

    EU accession

    The closed-door talks were also thought to have touched on relations between Turkey and the European Union. From the start of the visit, Gul has reiterated Turkey’s desire to join the 27-nation bloc. Merkel opposes Turkish accession and has only offered what she calls a “strategic partnership,” which Turkey rejects.

    Complicating matters, Turkey over the weekend threatened to freeze relations with the EU if it went ahead with allowing the divided island of Cyprus to take over the rotating six-month presidency of the bloc next year.

    Cyprus joined the EU in 2004 and was due to be handed the presidency in July 2012 after Denmark. But Turkey said it first wants to see a resolution to a standoff between Cyprus’ Turkish north and its Greek south, adding that a Cypriot EU presidency would “cause a major disruption” in relations. Turkey does not recognize Cyprus as a sovereign country.

    Following the talks with Merkel, Gul was to travel to the western city of Osnabrück for a second meeting with German President Christian Wulff. There he was scheduled to visit the provincial city’s historic town hall, at which the 1648 Peace of Westphalia was signed, bringing to a close the Thirty Years’ War in Europe.

    Author: Darren Mara (dpa, AP)

    Editor: Martin Kuebler

     

  • Turkey’s president seeks to forge European ties on Germany visit

    Turkey’s president seeks to forge European ties on Germany visit

    Turkish President Abdullah Gül will have a full agenda when he begins a visit to Germany on Sunday. A rapidly changing Middle East, and Turkey’s EU bid will be central topics, says Islam studies expert Udo Steinbach.

    Gül's eyes are focused on Europe ahead of his visit
    Gül's eyes are focused on Europe ahead of his visit

    Turkish President Abdullah Gül is to arrive in Berlin on Sunday, September 18, where he will be received by his German counterpart, President Christian Wulff. During his four-day visit, he is scheduled to deliver an address at Berlin’s Humboldt University and also to hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

    Ahead of the visit, Gül said Turkey was committed to pursuing membership in the European Union, despite opposition from some quarters in Germany and elsewhere on the continent.

    Deutsche Welle spoke to Islam expert Guido Steinbach about the issues bedeviling German-Turkish ties.

    Deutsche Welle: President Gül will be spending four days in Germany, a relatively long time for a state visit. Is this an attempt at convergence between the two countries?

    Udo Steinbach: Yes, certainly, for Germany and Turkey have several issues to discuss. President Gül already hinted at one of the main topics with his earlier statements that Turks living in Germany should speak perfect German without an accent. In other words, the issue of Turkish migrants in Germany will be a main topic.

    The other main issue will be how the two countries see the developments in northern Africa and the Middle East. For Turkey it is clear: without Europe, it is limited in what it can achieve. Europe, too, is aware that Turkey can be a strategic partner in this rapidly changing climate. The two countries must find a mutual strategy in northern Africa and the Middle East.

    But haven’t relations between Turkey and Europe cooled? Ankara’s EU accession negotiations are stalled, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel increasingly speaks of a mere “privileged partnership” between the two.

    Yes, and Turkey has reason enough to be frustrated over the way its bid for EU accession has been handled. But the fact that Mr. Gül has set aside four days for his trip to Germany should provide enough time to discuss this point – how can Turkish-European relations be reshaped in the light of new facts that have arisen in the past months. And also in light of the fact that Turkey and the European Union have more mutual interests in the Mediterranean and in the Middle East than ever before. We can no longer afford the indifference that has crept in between the two sides.

    Udo SteinbachBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Steinbach says Gül is one of Turkey’s ‘last Europeans’

    What future role does President Gül see his country playing in Europe?

    Mr. Gül is perhaps the last real convinced “European” among Turkey’s politicians. When it comes to Prime Minister Erdogan, I certainly have my reservations, but Mr. Gül is without a doubt pro-Europe. He has said time and time again that Turkey needs Europe’s support. Above all, perhaps, Gül seeks EU recognition that Turkey’s role in the Middle East is legitimate. Turkey is still waiting for this recognition, and this explains the often erratic way in which Erdogan and his foreign minister have acted in the Middle East.

    You say at the same time that Europe also needs to move towards Turkey: What areas in particular?

    There is currently a dominant scepticism that Turkey will ever become a member of the European Union. I believe this is a fundamental paradox. For the first time in the history of the EU, we are negotiating with a state over its membership to the union. This state, as with all those involved in the process of EU accession negotiations, must give up a whole lot and also transform itself significantly. And Europe, in the end, says: No, there is no membership for you. We have never seen this happen in such negotiations; it is unprecedented in the case of Turkey. And we must, I believe, vacate this fruitless position.

    Do you think Merkel could convince her conservative party of this?

    The chairman of the Bundestag’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Ruprecht Polenz, who is a key figure in Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has written a book about how important it is for Turkey to join the EU. There are many voices in Merkel’s CDU that recognize Turkey’s importance for Europe. Maybe these voices, together with President Gül, will be able to persuade Merkel to abandon her very formalistic positions on Turkey.

    Should the concept of Turkey’s “privileged partnership” be dropped?

    Yes, that has to go. It works against the entire process. The Turks have made no secret about their frustration. And this is exactly the point: If, at the end of Mr. Gül’s visit, we manage to forget this “privileged partnership,” then we will have successfully begun a new chapter and taken an important step into a new common future.

    Friederika Schulz interviewed Udo Steinbach (glb)

    Editor: Sonia Phalnikar

    via Turkey’s president seeks to forge European ties on Germany visit | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 17.09.2011.

  • Turkey’s president warns against Islamophobia

    Turkey’s president warns against Islamophobia

    Turkish President Abdullah Gul has warned against Islamophobia in Europe and said he considers a modern state a multicultural one.

    65138Gul made the comments in a joint interview with Turkey’s Zaman daily and Germany’s Die Zeit ahead of a scheduled visit to Germany.

    He said that the modern state with its democratic and legal principles had developed in Europe and that he found it contradictory to see Islamophobia in this continent.

    The president urged integration and said that every culture should be respected. He said it was impossible to reverse Muslim immigration to Europe and that Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and animosity toward immigrants were illnesses with difficult therapies.

    Gul said he believed Islam did not play a bigger role in the Arab Spring than communication technologies and that the West was contributing to the uprising with its technology.

    According to Gul, the revolution in Egypt was belated and started from the bottom upwards, as ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak had delayed reforms.

    Speaking about the uprising in Syria that has caused the death of at least 2,600 people according to UN estimates, Gul said relations between the two countries were close. He said that the Turkish government had warned the Syrian government to make rapid reforms and told them that authoritarian and closed regimes could not exist in this way today.

    Gul also harshly criticized Israel when asked why Turkey escalated tensions with Israel in the face of the Arab Spring, and named Israel as the chief culprit in the deterioration of relations between the two countries.

    Gul said Israel had attacked a Turkish ship where there were activists from 37 different countries last year, referring to the Mavi Marmara incident when Israeli naval commandos stormed an aid ship and killed nine Turkish civilians. Turkey demanded an official apology, compensation for the families of the victims and the lifting of the Gaza blockade. Israel said the soldiers had acted in self-defence.

    Gul said that it was natural to expect an apology from Israel, though they had refused to give one and were behaving as though they were right. “But they violated international law,” he stressed.

    Asked if it would be possible to overcome the crisis, Gul said it was possible and that Turkey was openly calling for it. “The important thing for us is that people were killed in this attack on the aid ship. But the [Gaza] embargo is not in line with international law. For this reason, the EU, Russia and the American government asked for the lifting of the embargo,” Gul said.

    Asked if Germany could mediate between the two countries, Gul said despite the deep historical relations between Germany and Turkey, he did not believe there was much the EU member state could do in this regard.

    Today’s Zaman

    via News.Az – Turkey’s president warns against Islamophobia.