rethinking death penalty may another sign of leaving the EU dream… A FP roundup..

From the Bosphorus: Straight – Renewed death penalty no answer

The return of the death penalty

The Quote of the Week: ?The end of normative enlargement? The case of Turkey? by Dr. Atsuko Higashino

Excerpt from Atsuko Higashino (2011) ?The end of normative enlargement? The case of Turkey?, EUSA Conference in Boston, 3-5 March. Full conference paper  is available at www.euce.org/eusa/2011/papers/10l_higashino.pdf

Announcement: ?EU?s Multilingualism Policy and the Turkish Language? speech by Asst. Prof. C. Akça ATAÇ

Asst. Prof. C. Akça ATAÇ (Çankaya University, Jean Monnet European Studies Association) will give a speech entitled ?EU?s Multilingualism Policy and the Turkish Language?at Middle East Technical University (METU) hosted by Center for European Studies.

Date: 30th March 2011

Venue: Blue Room, Center for European Studies, FEAS building B, METU, Ankara, Turkey.

Time: 14.00

This is a free event, all welcome.

European Parliament report on Turkey: criticizing itself with its own words by Egemen Bağış

Signs of an axis shift in EU’s trust in Turkey’s ruling party

Questions linger over Turkey’s Mideast role

Eastern Dreams

Joshua Walker has a good piece up on the Huffington Post site that looks at the roots and trajectory of Turkey’s current foreign policy and the role of historical memory in shaping that policy. From his piece:

Turkey learns rules of the game in Iraq

Historical embracement of Iraqi Kurds

The insoluble Cyprus problem: Sad island story | The Economist

Turkey-France: the tension?s side effects

Turkey and the future of Europe by Chris Patten

W. Robert Pearson and PKK Connection

Mavi Boncuk | WikiLeaks? Turkey partner, the daily Taraf, has published U.S. cables on alleged connections between the U.S. and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party, or PKK, which is recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and the U.S.

Taraf recalled a photograph published in the daily Milliyet by journalist Can Dündar on Jan. 23, 2003, which allegedly featured PKK members and ?U.S. officials? in a conference. Both Washington and then-U.S. Ambassador to Ankara W. Robert Pearson denied the allegations but Dündar stood by his story, claiming Turkey had official intelligence reports on the ties between the two parties. Taraf also noted the same photo was mentioned in an October 2010 interview by journalist Ertuğrul Mavioğlu with PKK official Murat Karayılan. He also denied the photo, saying it was computer generated, but confirmed the PKK was speaking to the U.S. in 2003-2004.