Turkey and Armeania, one step back-again

In the last round, relations got worse but I believe this is just another (negative) step in many steps to come… A roundup on Turkish foreign policy…

Historic efforts to establish ties between Armenia and Turkey ...

Historic efforts to establish ties between Armenia and Turkey may break down, the Armenian foreign minister warned on Friday, blaming Ankara for obstructing the process.

(AFP/Graphic/Paz Pizarro)

A Little Respect, Please

from NYT > Turkey by By SUAT KINIKLIOGLU
There’s a new Turkey, and Israel, the U.S. and Europe should get used to it.

Turkey and Armenia at odds over protocols

from FT.com – World, Europe
The Ottoman-era massacres of ethnic Armenians that Yerevan says constituted genocide still dog attempts to normalise relations between the two countries

Accords in Discord

from Istanbul Calling by Yigal Schleifer

It appears that both sides in the shotgun wedding that is the stalled Turkish-Armenian reconciliation process might be looking for a way out. Ankara has warned Yerevan, in fairly strong terms, that the conditions that the Armenian Constitutional Court has put on the historic accords are unacceptable and could jeopardize the process. Yerevan, meanwhile, is reminding Ankara that it is the one that put preconditions on the process, by linking it to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, and by letting the accords languish in parliament.

Military ties ?in,? political relations ?out?

by LALE KEMAL
The first several years after a landmark agreement was signed between Turkey and Israel on military and defense industry cooperation in 1996 were quite beneficial for Israel in the sense that this cooperation gave Israel an important opportunity to tell its hostile Arab neighbors that this secular but overwhelmingly Muslim nation was Tel Aviv?s ally.

Q & A: Israel’s diplomatic row with Turkey (Los Angeles Times)

from Yahoo news
The Foreign Ministry’s move to shame Turkey’s ambassador over an objectionable TV program backfired, says Israel’s former envoy to Ankara. We ‘took a beating for it,’ says Alon Liel. Angry over a Turkish TV show that portrayed Israelis as ruthless killers, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon summoned Turkey’s ambassador to his office this month for a dressing-down.

Germany at work trying to repair its damaged image in Turkey

by MEHMET KAMIŞ

A large faction of those who are closely watching and following the developments of the Ergenekon case believe that the international force that lies behind this organization is in fact Germany.

The Armenian initiative should continue by ALİ YURTTAGÜL

The most important development that had a tremendous impact on foreign relations last year was Turkey?s Armenian initiative.

Turkey could help EU’s soft-power ambitions, ambassador says

from EurActiv.com
Without Turkey bridging the gap between East and West on issues such as energy security, foreign policy and cooperation in the Middle East, the EU’s goal of exerting strong regional influence will be diminished, said Turkish Ambassador to Germany Ahmet Acet in a wide-ranging interview with EurActiv Germany.

Ambassador: ‘Turkey punished over Cyprus’

from EurActiv.com
Preemptive vetoes against Turkey’s EU accession stemming from regional tensions are unjust and its readiness to join the bloc should be based the country’s capacity to fulfil the requirements of the , Turkish Ambassador to Germany Ahmet Acet told EurActiv Germany in an interview.’acquis communautaire’

EU to export supervision rules to Balkans and Turkey

from EurActiv.com
The European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) yesterday (19 January) agreed on a two-year programme of ?2.65 million to boost macro- and micro-prudential supervision in the Western Balkans and Turkey.

An Open Letter to Israelis (From a Concerned Turk)

from The White Path

[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News] Dear friends, I hope all is well in the Holy Land. Things are not too bad here in Turkey. Yet one thing that certainly does not look great is relations between our countries, which hit an ugly low this week. In fact, since the beginning of your government’s “Operation Cast Lead” in Gaza, which happened a year ago, a continual war of words has been going on between your leaders and ours. But no war of words has ever helped anybody. So, as a humble commentator on Turkish affairs who would be happy to see better Israeli-Turkish relations, let me offer a few honest thoughts.

Looking at Turkey from Iraqi Kurdistan

by BÜLENT KENEŞ
In my last column, I wrote about how Turkey and the Turkish media look at Iraqi Kurdistan in the view of the Turkish participants in ?The Role of Media in the Relations between Turkey and the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq? meeting organized in İstanbul on Saturday by the Medialog Platform, which is part of the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV).

Yes to Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, but What About Turkey?

EP to keep Ankara’s democratisation efforts under close watch
Europolitics.info
Ergenekon is a criminal organisation accused of working to overthrow the government. Democratisation alongside rule of law and market economy are the core

The new face of Turkish foreign policy (II) by Özer Sencar & Ünal Bilir

Note: In the first part of this article, the authors discussed the global tendency toward change in foreign policy, and within this context changes in Turkish foreign policy, especially as a result of new trends on the domestic front. Addressing the findings of a new survey conducted by the MetroPOLL Strategic and Social Research Center to measure the Turkish public?s view of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), they noted striking support for the AK Party?s foreign policy changes, particularly those that evince changing attitudes toward neighboring Iran.

Half of Turks Would Vote to Join EU: Angus Reid Global Monitor

Immigration must be ‘priority’ issue in EU-Turkey ties – Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review

1 thought on “Turkey and Armeania, one step back-again”

  1. Erkan,
    That article about Germany in Today’s Zaman….you don’t take that serieus?.)
    Most insane and hilarious article of this year so far…
    Kindest
    hans

    Reply

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.