NEWS OF TURKEY IN ENGLISH *
Please x-out
to return to Pulse after reading
the publications herewith
OFFICIAL
FOREIGN POLICY & SECURITY AFFAIRS
OFFICIAL
ECONOMIC NEWS
MEDIA
IN TURKEY
CULTURE,
TOURISM, TRAKKING
To
take the political pulse of Turkey
www.turkpulse.com
-
With
its traditional publication principles -
Fast, First, Fresh
and
-
With the expectation
that the response will be the proper fourth “f” –
“Fair
enough”
 PREVIOUS
ISSUES
BREAKING
NEWS
|
INDEPTH ANALYSIS OF
PULSE
TURKPULSE No:157....JUNE 12th, 2006
TURKISH DIPLOMACY FACES
YET ANOTHER CROSSROADS
The
Erdogan Government keeps on issuing assurances to the world that there is no
basic foreign policy direction for Turkey other than the EU accession, but
never-ending speculations, especially in the Western world, say that the
present Turkish Government has lost its enthusiasm about the European integ ration
and is only paying lip service now. The doubts and speculations are certainly
not totally unjustified because Turkey is truly not tying its entire destiny
to this accession and rightly. For the historic background to this reality and
Turkey’s
ever-shapening “B” plans to the declining NATO alliance or unreliable EU
accession please read the article below.
The above summary should not be misunderstood
or taken as a claim that Turkey is not sincere in its feverish endeavor for EU
accession. It simply means that sooner or later Turkey will be a full member
of the European integration, but it will happen within Turkey’s own terms
which have been carefully worked out over the last five decades since Ankara’s
application back in 1959 to be an associate member of the Common Market, ie
the EEC as it was then called. Indeed Article 28 of the September 1963 Ankara
Treaty for this association explicitly permits such arrangements.
Turks will not shave off
their moustaches for the sake of EU accession
Murat Karayalcin, the then Foreign Minister
of Turkey, while signing the Customs Union agreement with the EU in 1995 said,
“We’ll enter the European Union with our
moustaches, not by shaving them off.”
Yet it is a fact that a lot of moustache
trimmings have already been dictated to the Turks by the EU and some were
quite bitter pills hard to swallow. Ankara (be it the previous Ecevit
Government or the current Erdogan one), by and large, manifested admirable
resistance to the people’s reluctance to comply, but they were mostly
realistic steps taken for the good of the nation in the long run. There are
still lots of changes in store for Turkey on its long journey for accession
and not all are justified demands. That is why Ankara has already drawn up its
red lines to stop this assault by firmly putting down its foot about the
unjustified demands. The rest will be complied with quite readily.
Click here to continue
|
|
TURKPULSE
No:156....MAY 30th, 2006
US-Turkish relations –
Washington on the offensive?
The U.S disappointment of the Erdogan
Government, especially of late, has reached such dimensions that Washington
seems to have come to the point of launching
an offensive on all fronts against Turkey sometimes disregarding any
diplomatic subtlety. For the background of this unusual occurrence
which stems from Washington’s long term plans and intensions for Turkey and
its future stages as well as possible consequences please read the article
below.
Click here to continue
|
TURKPULSE
No:155....MAY 16th, 2006
BME – THE “GAME” IS JUST
STARTING – NOT “OVER”
More than three whole years have gone by since President Bush announced, on 1
May 2003, about the Iraq war that
“The game is over,” but that
rather long period has only proved that what is over is only the American
dream about its BME (Broader Middle East) plans. The then French Foreign
Minister Dominique De Villepin, promptly remarking
at the UN Security Council, “It is neither
a game nor over.” This intervention pleased President Chirac and
the French people enough to make him prime minister of France exactly a year
ago. He is now on his way out of power, along with his
neighbouring counterpart PM Tony Blair, a key figure of the BME. As for
the fate of these plans of the Bush Administration, they have long gone down
the drain leaving behind the big question,
“Now What?” Russian media have
begun to speculate that the cold war is being revived and Turkey’s place in
this new world order is another key topic for speculation. For a
speculation-free analysis of the situation from Turkey’s angle please read the
article below.
Click here to continue
|
