TURKPULSE No: 56-60.................................................... DECEMBER 2001

TURKPULSE No:56 ABOVE ALL, COALITION SOLIDARITY

The three coalition parties seem to be successfully overcoming the Opposition’s efforts to set them against one another through corruption charges, but it may not be the case for the religious party chairman, Tayyip Erdogan. Thirty thousand students were given scholarships during Erdogan’s term of duty, as mayor of Istanbul, one-tenth being foreigners of Arab and Caucasus origin. The Judiciary is now going into the details of these foreign students in the light of 11^th September terrorism.     

TURKPULSE No:57 THE ECONOMY – Light seen at the end of the tunnel

Economy Minister Kemal Dervis expects a totally different economy in Turkey by mid-2002 provided that some unexpected events concerning political stability or in foreign policy do not mess it all up. The economy is bottoming out for the last two months and debt servicing will not be too much of a problem in the following months due to the successful fiscal performance and $3 billion surplus in current accounts by the end of the year. This successful performance, however, is not devoid of threats and pitfalls, believe the economy rulers.   

  TURKPULSE No:58 TURKEY’S LEAP FORWARD IN FOREIGN POLICY

Thanks to tendencies of basic changes recently on the part of Washington in its policies closely concerned with Turkey, Ankara is making progress in its foreign policy moves in leaps and bounds. “Strategic cooperation” is a claim frequently exploited in Turkish-American relations, but it seems that relations are really heading in that direction this time. Is it an over optimistic and premature assessment remains to be seen, in view of Ankara’s bitter experiences in its dealings with the United States in the past. The following are the fields in which there are optimistic signs in both countries’ foreign policy orientations and expectations.

TURKPULSE No:59 INTELLIGENCE COOPERATION IN TURKISH DIPLOMACY

PM Ecevit’s forthcoming summit with President Bush in Washington on January 16^th is expected to open a new page in Turkish-American strategic cooperation in the light of the realities of globalisation in the economic field and the political and military reorientation in the post-September 11^th era. Turkey has an excellent road map in assessing this strategic cooperation by comparing it with the outcome of the strategic cooperation that emerged from the President Clinton-PM Yilmaz summit in December 1997, as today’s 57^th Turkish Government under PM Ecevit is, in fact, an extension of the 55^th Government under PM Mesut Yilmaz four years ago.    

TURKPULSE No:60 TURKEY’S CRYSTAL CLEAR IRAQ POLICY MADE CLEARER

General Kivrikoglu has made a timely warning about Turkey’s “State Policy” on Iraq. He dismissed the possibility of any military operation in Iraq against the legitimate government in Baghdad without Turkey’s military intervention in Northern Iraq. In other words, the Tripartite Declaration of 1951 by the United States, the UK and France about preserving the status quo in the Middle East and the subsequent Eisenhower Doctrine confirming the same principle is now the case for Turkey about Iraq and especially Northern Iraq, even though these doctrines have now been abolished. PM Ecevit’s forthcoming visit to Washington is starting in the light of this clarification and hopefully it will be a successful visit living up to claims of “strategic cooperation” between Turkey and the United States. Global peace needs such cooperation in this troubled part of the world within Turkey’s single standard foreign policy principles.

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