TURKPULSE No:81THE
AMERICAN ECONOMIC MIRACLE AND ITS DRIVING FORCE
TURKPULSE No:81THE
AMERICAN ECONOMIC MIRACLE AND ITS DRIVING FORCE
The American economy is clearly in trouble today with plummeting stock shares and structurally sick giant multinationals like Enron. President Bush is very much aware of this fact and has been hard at work to rectify this during his last two years in power. What instruments has he used in this struggle, what are the results of this hard work, and what are the prospects for the world, especially for Turkey? For an attempt to analyse this question from Turkey’s angle, on the basis of facts and official American documents, please see the article below.
TURKPULSE No:82
TWO
CARROTS WITH LITTLE SUBSTANCE FROM THE WEST
Turkey received two carrots from the West last week, but neither contained much substance. The first was the keenly awaited progress report from the EU Commission about Turkey’s accession and the other was the less important QIZ (Qualified Industrial Zones) arrangement for duty free Turkish exports to the United States. The first did not give Turkey a date for commencement of the accession negotiations and left everything to the authorised body, the EU Ministerial Council, on 12 December 2002 in Copenhagen and the other was simply an insignificant lollypop, as confirmed even by official American documents, which are analysed below. PM Ecevit said of claims of “strategic cooperation” between Turkey and the United States, “I don’t know what is strategic about them.”
TURKPULSE No:83
NORTHERN IRAQ, IS IT UNDER CONTROL?
Northern Iraq, that is to say the Kurdish issue, will be the most important item on the agenda of the National Security Council when it convenes on October 22nd for its routine monthly meeting with a new strategy for Turkey about the forthcoming American military operation against Iraq. On the eve of this vitally important session of the NSC, Prime Minister Ecevit said that the Kurdish issue was getting out of hand with Barzani and Talabani proclaiming the centre of the Iraqi Turkmen community, Kirkuk, the capital of the Kurds. Ankara suspects that the new Kurdish draft constitution is part of American plans to set up an independent Kurdish State in northern Iraq without declaring UDI for the time being and that President Bush’s forthcoming military operation on Baghdad is its instrument. Here is a short story of the Turkish efforts to prevent a clash with the United States in their mutual policies of Iraq on the eve of the NSC meeting.