A special report on Turkey: Doing it by the book | The Economist A special report on Turkey: The Davutoglu effect | The Economist Analysis: Turkey hesitates on missile defense from Yahoo news Turkey finds itself once again in an awkward position between fellow NATO members and Iran as it considers a proposal to place … Read more
here is the website for the project… “In order to open this debate up to a wider interested public (including non-German speakers) we begin today by introducing some of the main thinkers and voices: intellectuals such as Necla Kelek, Thilo Sarrazin, Bassam Tibi, Henryk M. Broder, Stefan Luft, Ralph Giordano, Claus Leggewie, Werner Schiffauer, Seyran … Read more
U.S. President Barack Obama (R) greets Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul during a luncheon with heads of state at the United Nations general assembly meetings in New York, September 23, 2010.? Read more » REUTERS/Jason Reed Turkey Welcomes UN Inquiry Report On Aid-flotilla Raid from Yahoo news (RTTNews) – Turkey has welcomed a U.N. inquiry report … Read more
Today, White House denied that President Obama warned/gave an ultimatom to PM Erdoğan for Turkey’s foreign policy choices. But it is apparent that US does not like the new tendencies even if Obama does not explicitly castigates Erdoğan.. In the mean time, The Mavi Marmara inquiry continues slowly while Israel approaches needy Greece to start … Read more
The Wall Street Journal’s Turkey correspondent, Marc Champion, has another great article out, this time taking a look at the spectacular recent growth of Turkish Airlines (THY) and how that is both mirroring and working hand-in-hand with Turkey’s rising political and economic ambitions.
I have a piece up on the Eurasianet website that takes a look at the ongoing evolution (devolution?) of the Turkish-American relationship, from “strategic alliance” to “model partnership” to the next, yet-to-be named stage. From the article:
Top Statesmen visit the ambushed site … and a few ask why the all powerful Turkish army cannot defend its own soldiers… And the government doesn’t have any other support than its own constituencies. Hard times to be an AKP official. Middle Eastern sympathies cannot become a concrete support in near future, AKP has to … Read more
Difficult Times for the Israeli Civil Society
Source: Heinrich Boll Stiftung Israel
The number of attacks by the nationalist camp against Israeli human rights organizations and other non-governmental organizations has risen significantly in the past six months. The work of these organizations has always been disputed by certain parts of the Israeli society. In a state which is in conflict with its neighbors ? a conflict that frequently adopts violent and warlike traits, such disputes is are to be expected. Furthermore, a non-negligible part of the actors considers the conflict as an existential one.
http://vimeo.com/12488021 Despite the Israeli government?s thorough efforts to confiscate all footage taken during the attack, Iara Lee was able to retain some of her recordings. Above is 15 minutes of footage from the moments leading up to and during the Israeli commandos? assault on the Mavi Marmara. *** Turkey denies break with Europe from BBC … Read more
I have stated several times that Turkey has started a new foreign policy which is riskier but more attractive than the old obedient silent ally policy. I sincerely wish for its success. EU hesitancy certainly helped the change. Before this new line of policy started, many Turks had already lost hope in the EU front. It is not easy for a nation to wait for more than 50 years for a membership. It is a great humiliation and Turkey is not the only reason for that.
Current Turkish leaders’ Islamic origins certainly gave them the courage to continue. Even if previous leaders thought to have more assertive foreign policy, that hardcore secularist line had little ties with the public but dependent on Western powers in terms of lifestyles and ideological background, social capital etc.
“Moving Eastward” is a mistaken thinking. I believe new FP is an attempt of neo-Ottomanism. I believe Turkish elites are trying to gather power from Middle East to negotiate in better terms with the major Western policy makers…
and for the critics of being isolated, was Turkey ever not isolated? always in fight with her neighbours, dependent on mostly US to survive. Is that being not isolated?
In the mean time, with the existing leaders in both countries Israel and Turkey relations are doomed to end and US-Turkey relations will be worse… US Foreign Policy Establishment is too conservative to change and has forgotten diplomacy for ages and doesn’t want to see that being a superior war machine is not enough, something proved hundreds of times…
I met Cevdet Kılıçlar when I was in college. He was one of the most cordial Muslims I ever met. A positive man, who loved to help people around, altruistic for sure, and liked his job of photo-journalism (some of his photos can be found here). It is after midnight now, hard to stop tears. His funeral is tomorrow after the Friday prayer. It will probably become a grand Islamic demonstration as he was a beloved one. Not because of his militancy but because of inherent kindness he had. Not many Islamists have that… Cevdet abi, rest in peace.
Furkan Doğan was 19, 4 bullets found in his head…. May his soul rest in peace. via
A brief introduction to the nine Turkish people shot dead on 31 May 2010, by Israeli soldiers who attacked the Turkish vessel M.V. Mavi Marmara, as it attempted to transport humanitarian aid to the people of the Gaza Strip.
Former president of Spain Felipe Gónzalez / AFP Photo from Hurriyet Daily News
The 12-member wise man commission French president Nikolas Sarkozy endeavored to setup in 2007 in part to frustrate Turkey’s accession track has instead concluded that walking away from Turkey’s accession process or granting it/treating its accession bid with something less than full membership is a betrayal that risks EU credibility.
Foreign Policy (USA), May 20, 2010
By Ahmet Davutoglu
The Turkish government this week brokered an 11th-hour nuclear fuel swap deal with Iran. Turkey?s foreign minister explains the principles that made it possible.
Throughout modern history, there has been a direct relationship between conflict and the emergence of new ways of arbitrating world affairs. Every major war since the 17th century was concluded by a treaty that led to the emergence of a new order, from the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 that followed the Thirty Years? War, to the Congress of Vienna of 1814-1815 that brought an end to the Napoleonic Wars, to the ill-fated Treaty of Versailles that concluded the first World War, to the agreement at Yalta that laid the groundwork for the establishment of the United Nations in 1945. Yet the Cold War, which could be regarded as a global-scale war, ended not with grand summitry, but with the fall of the Iron Curtain and the collapse of the Soviet Union. There was no official conclusion; one of the combatant sides just suddenly ceased to exist.
Not that US arguments are all wrong but US Foreign Policy does not offer more than sanctions to Iran and this is nothing new. No innovation, no change in their policy although diplomacy requires constant fine tuning. US still chooses the only option of threatening and then wonders why they are not liked in Middle East… Mr. Obama continues to be a disappointment in matters of foreign policy…