"Austrian vote sends shockwaves through Brussels: Should Turkey worry?

Austrian vote sends shockwaves through Brussels: Should Turkey worry?

More than once I had the pleasure of meeting with former Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer when we were both representing European youth movements in the mid to late ’80s.

Smooth transition to optimism on EU bid

Discriminatory, conservative, exploiter: These were the initial connotations of "Europe" for a group of university students that recently gathered in Turkey’s holiday resort in the Mediterranean —

EU reforms, cross-border motion on Parliament agenda

Parliament is set to return from summer recess Wednesday, with President Abdullah Gül ready to address deputies in an opening speech. In his keynote speech the president is expected to urge

EU research centers advance across Turkey

As ties between Turkey and the European Union have increased since the formal launch of accession negotiations in 2005, the number of EU research centers at Turkish universities has risen. "

TURKISH AUTHORITIES STEP UP CENSORSHIP OF INTERNET WEBSITES – Eurasia Daily Monitor

Turkey’s PM signals cabinet reshuffle, EU negotiator flagged

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan signaled a cabinet reshuffle and change to the party’s administration, which is expected to include ministerial positions deemed secure, such as the finance minister and Turkey’s chief negotiator for EU talks, Vatan daily reported on Friday citing sources."

Time to start a balanced debate on Turkish EU membership

"It is high time to conduct a reasoned debate about the costs and benefits of Turkish EU accession," argues Markus Jäger of Deutsche Bank Research.

RELIGIOUS HOLIDAY SHIELDS TURKISH MARKETS AGAINST GLOBAL TURMOIL – Eurasia Daily Monitor

No freedom of movement for Turks in EU, says Dutch Labour

By Internation Musing

I don’t think that Turkey will be happy by the Dutch socialists policy, staunch supporter of Turkey’s bid for the EU as they released their draft manifesto for the European elections in June 2009.

Municipal elections

The government has prepared a draft proposal to invigorate Turkey’s preparation for membership in the European Union. A list of reforms and how to proceed with them was ready to be presented to other parties represented in Parliament.

Francophone Turks on the impact of French policy

The wave of Turkey-skepticism that has swept through European public opinion in recent years has undoubtedly cooled Turks’ enthusiasm for European Union accession. Nowhere has the opposition to Ankara’s bid been expressed as bluntly and tactlessly as in France.

Learning from past mistakes from firsthand sources

When it comes to preserving the status quo, Turkish Foreign Ministry bureaucrats do not seem so different from their colleagues in other state institutions, including the military, and diplomats have also made a significant contribution to the preservation of Turkey’s inward-looking mentality.

Turkey and the European Union

by David Casa

Relations between Turkey and the European Union were suspended for most of the 1970s and 1980s for several reasons: the military coup of 1971, the Cyprus intervention of 1974 and the military coup of 1980, which closed down political parties and trade unions and imprisoned many people on political grounds. Eventually, the EU summit held in Helsinki in December 1999 made a historic decision. Turkey was officially designated “a candidate country destined to join the union on the basis of the same criteria applied to the other candidate countries”."

EU – Turkey Relations: “Why you opened the door in the first place?”

Irem Guney
Recently, Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan accused the EU of prolonging the accession talks on purpose, by opening two chapters during each term presidency[1]. The same idea was also expressed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ali Babacan. I cannot think of a better summary of recent EU-Turkey relations than Erdoğan’s words."

Strategic Focus on Turkey Project

Chatham House is pleased to announce the launch of the Strategic Focus on Turkey Project supported by Doğan Holding. This project will analyse and highlight some of the significant issues resulting from the geo-political and geo-economic position of Turkey, and its implications for British, European, US, Turkish and other governments’ policies. Areas of research will include Turkey’s role in the Middle East, its role in diversifying Europe’s energy security and Turkey’s role in the development of the Black Sea region and Central Asia."

Turkey’s ‘Finlandization’

For the past several years, Turkey has balanced its relationship with the West with its relationship with Iran and Russia — just as Finland balanced the West and Russia during the Cold War. Finland, at the time, paralleled Western policies but remained intimate with Moscow. In this Turkish-language interview, Soner Cagaptay argues that Turkish foreign policy has gone through a process of ‘Finlandization,’ where Ankara mirrors the West in the Middle East while keeping Iranian and Russian interests in mind.

Football Diplomacy as Viewed from Azerbaijan

Arzu Geybullayeva

Turkey’s efforts on the Armenian front

By RADİKAL, HASAN CELAL GÜZEL

The improvement of relations between Turkey and Armenia is, particularly for Armenia’s economy and the prosperity of its people, of utmost importance.

Shame

By ZAMAN, MUSTAFA ÜNAL

Today I would have liked to have commented on messages from President Abdullah Gül in regard to new developments on the EU accession process front; but, instead, certain unpleasant events that marked the opening of Parliament have grabbed the spotlight.

Abdullah Gul on Iran, Iraq, the EU and Turkey

"Pulled From Two Directions
By Rana Foroohar | NEWSWEEK
Published Oct 4, 2008
From the magazine issue dated Oct 13, 2008

Turkey’s president Abdullah Gul is one of his nation’s most polarizing figures. Western-oriented and pro-EU, his Justice and Development Party has roots in Islam and pushed to abolish the ban on headscarves in universities, provoking debate about the nature of liberalism in this secular nation. Turkey’s leaders face a similar balancing act abroad, with instability over its eastern and southern borders—and tentative allies in the West. NEWSWEEK’s Rana Foroohar talked with Gul about being in the middle of it all. Excerpts:"