Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb 2 2007

Provocation by Greek Cypriots, a `fait accompli’ and `casus belli’

by BULENT KENES

Making `Peace at home, peace in the world’ its motto for foreign
policy, Turkey has always tried to develop peaceful policies with
equal parties since its foundation. The founder of modern Turkey,
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, exerted great efforts for the creation of the
Sadabad Pact (1937), the Balkan Pact (1934) and the Baghdad Pact
(1955) and thus endeavored to turn the region into a basin of peace.
The oppressive and devastating waves of communism and fascism and the
Cold War era following World War II saw the years when Turkey’s own
peace efforts proved effective within its scope of power. When the
Cold War era ended, we found a Turkey troubled by problems with all
its neighbors. The problems with Bulgaria centered on the oppression
of fellow Turks living there, an airspace problem with Greece along
with numerous Aegean troubles caused by conflicts over territorial
waters and the continental shelf, the persisting Cyprus crisis, the
PKK crisis with Syria as its host, security crises with Iraq again
centered on the PKK, crises with Iran stemming from its never-ending
export of the `Islamic revolution,’ Nagorno-Karabakh and `genocide
claim’ crises with Armenia and, as always, tense relations with
Russia.
Turkey’s experience throughout the 1990s was marked by never-ending
rifts with all the neighbors and did not fit the `Peace at home,
peace in the world’ motto. Of course the role of our neighbors in
building this picture was great, yet they never adopted similar for
their foreign policy.
Turkey made significant headway around the year 2000 to putting the
relations with neighbors back on track. The relations with Syria,
which was forced by Turkey in 1998 to kick the head of the PKK,
Abdullah Öcalan, out of the country, embarked in a very positive
direction particularly after the death of the father, Hafez al-Assad.
And relations with Greece, after the shame Athens brought upon itself
when caught red-handed daring to abet Öcalan, began to go more
smoothly, especially with the efforts of the late former Foreign
Minister Ýsmail Cem and the atmosphere of solidarity that came about
following the Aug. 17, 1999 earthquake.
The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government took over
Parliament in 2002, aware that Turkey’s interests lay in bettering
relations with its neighbors. Following a `Zero Problem Policy,’ a
policy to minimize the problems with its neighbors, the AK Party
elevated relations with all countries to the highest level possible,
except those with Armenia. And the returns were fast to come,
particularly in foreign trade. Turkey’s close involvement with its
neighbors and the world’s many problematic regions during the AK
Party’s time in power has meant that Turkey’s traditional peaceful
attitude is developing and becoming more tangible.
While Turkey’s peaceful attitude was apparent throughout the March 1,
2003 vote [against a bill allowing US troops to use bases in Turkey
to support its invasion of Iraq], its facilitator role for
negotiation on the Israel-Palestine conflict and its `Alliance of
Civilizations’ project along with its efforts to rehabilitate the
conflict areas threatening the world were sincerely appreciated.
However, the recent peace moves Turkey has been arduously pursuing
have obviously been misinterpreted by certain countries. Even though
they rejected the Annan plan, which had been the most serious chance
of establishing peace and resolving the problem, the Greek Cypriots
were accepted into the European Union (despite the Turkish Cypriots’
acceptance of the plan), and upon being accepted as the only legal
representative of the island, they took the bit between the teeth.
This approach of Turkey, which has recently followed a path of
reconciliation and has always been a step or two ahead, was
apparently misleading to the Greek Cypriots. Otherwise, why would
they be trying to unilaterally claim economic resources — considered
the common property of all Cypriots, be they Greek or Turk — in the
island’s territorial waters and continental shelf and to make
offshore licensing agreements with third countries? What could this
mean but dangerous provocations?
It would suffice to look back into the near past for Greeks to
understand how serious Ankara is, who warned the Greek Cypriot
administration, spoilt by the EU, and `third countries’ Egypt and
Lebanon. And I think Turkey sending warships to the waters near the
region yesterday is sufficiently informative in demonstrating its
intolerance over any sort of `fait accompli.’
Certainly Turkey will not remain a passive spectator while the Greek
Cypriot administration is preparing to usurp about 8 billion barrels
(approximately $400 billion worth — as research conducted by a
Norwegian oil company revealed) of crude oil reserves around the
island. Adding one more `casus belli’ to the list would not make much
difference for Turkey, but such a development would be of vital
consequences for the Greek Cypriot administration, even if it is an
EU member.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress