EU vs. Turkey. Tense days recently… A roundup in TR foreign policy

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The idiotic gap

by YAVUZ BAYDAR
Let us repeat old news because it is needed. Relations between Turkey and the European Union are heading for a nasty crash. This conclusion became increasingly visible after the problematic visit to Ankara by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and not-so-warm contacts between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish prime minister, during the latter?s visit to Germany.

 

Bad weekend for EU-Turkey relations

from EUobserver.com – Headline News

Return our Sphinx or Else…Fernstehen?

from Mavi Boncuk by M.A.M


Mavi Boncuk
Return our sphinx or else, Turkey tells Germany

Turkey’s culture minister on Thursday demanded Germany return an ancient sphinx uncovered from a German archeological dig nearly a century ago or it would revoke permits for other excavations. Ertugrul Gunay told the Tagesspiegel daily in an interview that German authorities had until the start of the digging season in June to hand back the priceless artefact, thought to date from around 1400 BC.

Turkey Almost Says…Take This EU and Shove it…

from Mavi Boncuk by M.A.M

Tilting their hat to Johnny Paycheck. Turkey is singing a similar song…Take This EU and Shove it… No fat lady in sight so far to take over. So Turkey keeps on horse trading for 50 years. By the way the horse today has an average life expectancy of 25 to 30 years. The end result could be in vain. As the saying goes, maybe ‘Ati alan Uskudari gecti’.

Mavi Boncuk |

European Union ministers have approved a deal with Turkey on the readmission of illegal immigrants but refrained from authorizing the EU Commission to begin talks with Ankara on visa liberalization for Turkish nationals, calling, instead, for an ambiguous ?visa dialogue.?

Turkish Leader’s Cultural Remarks Irk German Politicians

from NYT > Turkey by By JUDY DEMPSEY
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking in Düsseldorf to thousands of Turks who live in Germany, said they should to teach their children the Turkish language first and then German.

 

sarkozy-erdogan-ankara-vatan.1298740267.jpg

 

French President, Sarkozy, Faces Turkish Critics

from NYT > Turkey by By SEBNEM ARSU and STEVEN ERLANGER
President Nicolas Sarkozy was criticized Friday for Europe?s so far limited reaction to the Libyan crackdown and for a reluctance to bring Turkey into the European Union.

Frances President Sarkozy meets with Turkeys ...

France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) meets with Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara February 25, 2011. REUTERS/Kayhan Ozer/Prime Minister’s Press Office/Handout

Sarkozy?s low-profile visit to Turkey

by ŞULE KULU YILMAZ
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a staunch opponent of Turkey?s membership in the EU, was in Ankara yesterday for a five-hour visit with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. However, Sarkozy?s brief visit to Turkey was in his capacity as the current president of the Group of 20 (G20), a policy forum for the world?s leading rich and developing economies.

Nicolas Sarkozy en Turquie : le maire d?Ankara mâche un chewing-gum et autres petites piques.

from YOL (routes de Turquie et d’ailleurs) by anne

Turkey’s EU-phemism is ‘Middle East Coal and Steel Community’

from Hurriyet Dailynews by HDN
Mr Sarkozy was laughing the moment he ran into the ‘punishing low steps diplomacy’ as he was forced to shake Mr Erdoğan?s hand from half a meter down the stairs.

Sarkozy?s visit

by BERİL DEDEOĞLU
French President Nicolas Sarkozy?s stop in Turkey had some very important outcomes. First, everyone saw once again that leaders? official explanations on the meanings of their visits are insignificant. Sarkozy repeated a thousand times that he didn?t make this call as the French president; but neither Turkey, nor any other country in the world, saw it from that perspective. In other words, we saw once more that perception is always more important than declaration.

Two French politicians who failed to comprehend Turkish-French geopolitics

by HASAN KANBOLAT
French President Nicolas Sarkozy paid a five-hour visit to Ankara on Feb. 25. Sarkozy visited Baghdad for only four hours, in which he held talks at the airport before he quickly left the country. Fortunately, he did not do the same in Ankara. The late İhsan Doğramacı used to say, ?You may make a person happy by inviting him/her to dinner, but you cannot make him/her leave happy if you do not plan carefully where you will have him/her sit at the table.?

Turkey to confront Sarkozy on opposition to EU bid – latimes.com

Will the visa obligation for Turks be abolished?

from Hurriyet Dailynews by HDN
EU interior ministers backed an agreement that requires Turkey to take back illegal immigrants originating from Turkey and gave the green light to a visa dialog with Ankara. Whereas the Commission wants to talk about visa liberalisation, countries with a high immigration level of Turks are in favour of limited visa facilitations for certain groups of persons such as students, researchers and businessmen.

 

Turkey?s popularity and power

by ERGUN BABAHAN
The Arab street is fascinated by Turkey and its leaders.

 

It is Impossible to Understand Sarkozy?s Policy on Turkey

from U.S.A.K. Blog by USAK

Gizem YELDAN (JTW)

ANKARA- French President Nicholas Sarkozy pays a formal visit to Turkey on February 25. However, he is acting like this was a reluctant visit made by force.

Turkey faces struggle to revive EU bid | Reuters

 

Germany hits back after Turkish PM tells immigrants to resist assimilation

from World news: Turkey | guardian.co.uk by Helen Pidd

Recep Tayyip Erdogan told 10,000 in Düsseldorf that children of Turkish immigrants should learn Turkish before German

Germany has hit back at explosive remarks by Turkey’s prime minister, who told his compatriots that they should learn Turkish before German and resist assimilation into German society.

Turkey as a ‘Companion’ not a ‘Model’ to the Middle East

from U.S.A.K. Blog by USAK

Mehmet Yegin, USAK Center for American Studies

The situation in the Middle East is getting complicated with the spread of the societal movements to Yemen, Bahrain and Libya. It became more difficult to follow the developments in all these states. Yet, the attention shift to the uneasy countries should not cause losing the track of successful movements to overthrow the symbol names. The central concern is not the change of the names but the change of whole system. Thus, the international community that endorsed the democratic demands of the streets should also endorse them during the democratization process. In this regard, particularly Egyptian democratization process is crucial since it have the potential to influence the others.

Repercussions of Sarkozy?s ?cold? visit

by ŞULE KULU YILMAZ
As expected, French President Nicolas Sarkozy?s first-ever visit to Turkey since his election in 2007 was dominated by a cold and tense atmosphere. On Friday, the French president had talks with President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his brief working visit aimed primarily at winning Ankara?s support for France?s goals during its time at the helm of the G20.

Debating Integration: Competing Views on Germany’s Immigrants – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International

Islamists Look to Turkey for Inspiration

from Yahoo news

As revolutions across the Mideast bring religious parties within sight of real political power, Turkey?s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is becoming the region?s go-to man for Islamist leaders looking for a makeover. Tunisia?s exiled Islamist leader Rached Ghannouchi, who is scheduled to visit Ankara in March, believes that Erdogan?s Justice and Development Party (AKP) has shown others how

The Fading Dream of Europe in Turkey

from reflectioncafe.net by Reflection Cafe
Orhan Pamuk
In the schoolbooks I read as a child in the 1950s and 1960s, Europe was a rosy land of legend. While forging his new republic from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, which had been crushed and fragmented in World War I, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk fought against the Greek army, but with the support of his own army he later introduced a slew of social and cultural modernization reforms that were not anti- but pro-Western. It was to legitimize these reforms, which helped to strengthen the new Turkish state?s new elites (and were the subject of continuous debate in Turkey over the next eighty years), that we were called upon to embrace and even imitate a rosy-pink?occidentalist?European dream.

 

Religion and Work Ethic Values: The Case of Turkey

by Reflection Cafe
THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION OVER WORK ETHIC VALUES:
The Case of Islam and Turkish SME Owner-Managers
Selçuk Uygur, Phd Thesis, 2009
Brunel University, London
Abstract:
The aim of this thesis is to explore the influence of religion on the work ethic values of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owner-managers in Turkey. The emergence of religious/pious business people in Turkey has been regarded as a phenomenon. This research pays special attention to the religious transformation and secularism in Turkey. It is based on semi-structured qualitative interviews with 32 Turkish SME owner-managers. The sample of the study has been divided into two groups: The practicing Muslim Turkish managers (the religious group), and non/less practicing Muslim Turkish managers (the secular group).

 

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