TURKPULSE No:112
PM
ERDOGAN’S WASHINGTON VISIT AT CRITICAL CROSSROADS
TURKPULSE No:112
PM
ERDOGAN’S WASHINGTON VISIT AT CRITICAL CROSSROADS
PM Tayyip Erdogan’s first official visit to Washington on January 28th is not taking place under ideal conditions or in high expectations, but rather at the beginning of 2004 which promises to be a critical year for Turkey, not only in foreign policy, but also in the economy. Given the unexpected shock to Washington by the Turkish Parliament’s 1 March rebuff on the eve of the Iraq war, the feeling may be reciprocal, but Ankara has a long list of disappointing events and developments which have evoked in Turkey great suspicion of the Americans’ future intentions on matters of vital importance to Ankara. Needless to say, Kirkuk and Cyprus top the list of these issues, but it goes much deeper than that. For a rundown of these events and the expectations for the future please see the article below.
TURKPULSE No:113
EURASIAN
COOPERATION ENJOYS
BEING
PRIORITY
FOR AKP
Though accession to the EU is clearly a top priority for all political parties in Turkey, the Erdogan Government’s political Islamic roots make the Eurasian Cooperation an almost equally important and popular target. The ethnical and religious popularity of the Eurasian Cooperation, as well as its logical realism and rationale, has induced the AKP rule to pay lip service to the USA’s strategic cooperation claim whilst silently pushing through the Eurasian one as the second choice or even an alternative to EU accession. In other words, the United States and, to a lesser extent, NATO are no longer the indispensable top preferences for the present Government and even the State organs, but third-rate useful instruments after other “Cooperation and Security” arrangements such as the OSCE for Europe and similar organisations or initiatives for other regions like Eurasia, the Middle East, the Gulf, the Caucasus, and the Balkans. For details of this unnoticed new characteristic of Turkish diplomacy and security please see the article below.
TURKPULSE No:114
CYPRUS – DID TURKISH DIPLOMACY SCORE A MAJOR GOAL?
PM Erdogan’s contacts with the Bush Administration in Washington threw the ball into the Greek court for the impasse at the Cyprus talks within UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s goodwill mission. It may be a major achievement for the Turkish Government which had managed to work out a single joint Turkish and Turkish Cypriot text over the Annan plan if it eventually undoes the other side’s “take-it-or-leave-it” ultimatum and by all indications it is doing so. The following is the interesting background and aspects of this achievement of Turkish diplomacy which left the Greek side perplexed, if not in shock.