Merkel in town, for what?

Probably trade deals. Turkey-Germany relations are quite dense in fact. But I never liked Merkel who keeps pushing for privileged partnership to Turkey. Negotiations for full membership continues and Merkel still fantasizes with that. What kind of an ally her government is?

EU row sours Merkel’s Turkey trip

An official visit to Turkey by Germany’s Chancellor Merkel is being overshadowed by spats over EU membership.

Why is Merkel coming to Turkey? by ALİ YURTTAGÜL

from Today’s Zaman, your gateway to Turkish daily news :: Op-Ed

Questioning the purpose of Chancellor Angela Merkel?s visit to Ankara is not a rhetorical approach; rather it stems from the visit?s background, which brings up interesting questions.

Erdogan and Merkel spar ahead of Turkey visit

from EUobserver.com – Headline News

YAVUZ BAYDAR – A tense visit with a serious agenda

German-Turkish talks, as we understand, will not take place in a jolly mood. Days before German Chancellor Angela Merkel was to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to discuss highly important matters, statements by both of them in various news outlets had already poisoned the atmosphere.

Rasmussen: A Friend to Turkey After All?

NATO Chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen is calling for the European Union to allow Turkey administrative arrangements with the European Defense Agency (EDA), a move that would greatly strengthen cooperation between NATO and the EU. Since Cyprus, a non-NATO member, was admitted to the EU in 2004, tensions between the EU and Turkey within NATO have run high as Cyprus has sought to block Turkish membership in European security institutions, among them the EDA. Turkey has long aspired for an EU-Turkey Security Agreement, as well as administrative arrangements in the EDA, both of which Cyprus has said it will oppose until a settlement on Cyprus is reached. From Hurriyet Daily News:

A neighborhood rediscovered: Turkey?s transatlantic value in the Middle East

Brussels Forum Paper Series (The German Marshall Fund of the United States), March 2010, 28 pages

By Kemal Kirişci, Nathalie Tocci and Joshua Walker

The recent activism in Turkish foreign policy has caused political waves throughout Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. In attempting to decipher Turkey?s foreign policy trajectory, many have focused on Turkey?s activism in the Middle East. Yet this is not new. At different points in time, Turkey opted to engage the Middle East. However its interventions in the past played into the balance of power logic of the Arab/Soviet versus Israeli/American conflict, oscillating between one side and the other, albeit more frequently on the side of the latter. With the end of the Cold War, Turkey?s activism translated into assertiveness and confrontation. While Turkey?s military relationship with Israel rallied favor in the West, Turkey made the Middle East an even more unstable and crisisprone region through confrontational relations with Iraq, Iran, and Syria.¹ More widely, Turkey believed it was ?besieged by a veritable ring of evil,? ² fueling counter-alliances between Syria, Iran, Iraq, Greece, Russia, Serbia, and Armenia.³ Şükrü Elekdağ, a retired ambassador and former deputy undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry, advocated in the mid 1990s that Turkey should prepare to fight ?two-and-a-half wars? simultaneously against Greece, Syria, and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).4

EXCLUSIVE: The metamorphosis of Turkey – Public Service

Where is Turkey heading? Is the traditional friend of the EU, NATO and US turning out to be a foe? Ziya Meral investigates

Turkey gets Clinton pledge on genocide resolution – washingtonpost.com