TURKPULSE No: 35-39.................................................... MAY 2001

TURKPULSE No:35 EVERYTHING BACK IN PERSPECTIVE IN TURKEY

This week is expected to see considerable improvements in Turkey’s public life in all fields from the economy to politics and international relations, unless an unexpected development beyond Turkey’s control messes up everything such as the recent Chechen hotel raid that was luckily nipped in the bud. In the economy hot money is discouraged. In politics Kemal Dervis is expected to play for the leader of the centre left. The government coalition paradoxically emerged stronger from the crisis, likely to rule until the next general elections. In the international field, the first train since the outbreak of the Gulf war nearly 11 years ago reached Baghdad from Turkey on Sunday (6th) as a beginning of the return of the old happy days in Turkish-Iraqi trade and the resumption of normal transport and communication in the region.    

TURKPULSE No:36 IS THE “COMMON ENEMY” BECOMING THE “COMMON FRIEND”?  

Turkey and China did not have a “common enemy” in 1974, but if the Taliban monster continues to further stir up the region there may inevitably appear a wider front of “common friends” against the monster and the forces behind it. For the details of this interesting diplomatic story see the article below especially now that the United States and China are heading for a showdown for economic supremacy in the world.


TURKPULSE No:37 TURKEY’S ECONOMIC INTEGRATION EFFORTS

A multilateral economic integration is in progress in Turkey’s foreign policy. Leaving aside the universal globalisation process and the fairly long-term aim to become a full member of the EU, the topical economic integration efforts of Turkey concern Cyprus and Iraq. These integrations, for their part, involve a bigger economic integration with Eurasia, the BSEC (Black Sea Economic Cooperation) being its backbone. In the long run the regional integrations will be the side forces of Turkey’s real aim of integrating with the European Union. 

TURKPULSE No:38POLITICAL PARTIES ARE BEING REORGANISED

Judging by the campaign that has been going on in the Turkish media for months, Washington is trying to replace Mesut Yilmaz with Sadettin Tantan, have Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the leader of the religious fundamentalists, within or outside the FP and, of course, make Kemal Dervis the next Prime Minister of Turkey. Meanwhile, the tripartite Ecevit government is marking its second anniversary (Monday 28th), an unprecedented achievement in recent Turkish political history for the last quarter of a century. And this achievement was despite intensive superpower efforts to smear ANAP leaders with corruption charges over energy investments, primarily the Blue Stream project. The following is the details of this eye-opening story. 

TURKPULSE No:39TURKISH INVESTMENTS ABROAD AND ENERGY COOPERATION WITH RUSSIA

Turkish private enterprise is keenly investing in the former Warsaw Pact countries with an eye to exporting to western markets when they become an EU member before long. Cooperation with Russia is of a strategic nature with energy being its backbone and is enlarging further as an indispensable source of income for both countries.  

 

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