Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb 15 2008
Turkey to recognize independent Kosovo in 48 hours
Turkey will probably not be the first country to recognize an
independent Kosovo but it will definitely be among a group of
countries extending speedy recognition to the new state, Turkish
government sources have said.
"It will not take a week. It will happen within the first 24 or 48
hours," an official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
Kosovo’s Albanian leadership is expected to declare independence this
month, probably as soon as this weekend, and Kosovar President Fatmir
Sejdiu, who visited Ankara last week, said he was confident that
Ankara would recognize a Kosovo state soon after it declares
independence from Serbia, although he declined to comment how soon
that could be.
Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said he expected about 100
countries to quickly recognize the province’s independence from
Serbia. Ankara is ready to support an independent Kosovo, in line
with the US and European Union stance.
Turkish decision-makers are convinced that a unity of Serbs and
Albanians is unlikely to last given the strong Albanian desire for
independence and that more problems are likely to emerge if Kosovo’s
Albanians are forced to remain part of Serbia.
But analysts say support for independent Kosovo may present some
foreign policy predicaments for Ankara. Kosovo may set a precedent
for northern Iraq, ruled by an autonomous Kurdish administration, or
Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan that has been
under Armenian occupation for more than a decade. In both cases,
Ankara is strongly opposed to secession.
The official ruled out such concerns, saying Kosovo’s case does not
fully resemble Nagorno-Karabakh or northern Iraq, while it is very
similar to Turkish Cyprus, whose unilaterally declared independent
state has existed since the early 1980s. Contrary to the former
Yugoslavia of which Kosovo was a part, Azerbaijan remains a fully
sovereign state with no change in its internationally recognized
borders. Iraq’s Kurdish-run north also does not have the same legal
status in Iraq as Kosovo had in the former Yugoslavia and then in
Serbia.
Greek Cyprus strongly opposes a unilateral declaration of
independence by Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leaders, fearing it could
set a precedent that would legitimize the Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus (KKTC), which is officially recognized only by
Ankara.
In an interview with Today’s Zaman last week, Sejdiu ruled out that
Kosovo could set a precedent for Cyprus. "Kosovo is a unique issue.
It cannot set a precedent for another region or country," he said.
No consulate in Arbil; new offices in Africa
Meanwhile, Turkish officials also denied recent media reports that
Turkey was planning to open a consulate in Arbil, the regional
capital of Kurdish-run northern Iraq. Turkey has one consulate in
Basra in the country’s south and a second is being opened in Mosul in
the north. Officials said a third consulate in Iraq was not an urgent
need at present.
But the same officials unveiled plans to open about 10 new consulates
in Africa in 2008. The government, which sees forging ties with
Africa as a foreign policy priority, is planning to open consulates
in Mali, Chad, Niger, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mozambique,
Cameroon and Tanzania. More consulates in other African countries
will follow in 2009.
Ankara defied international criticism for the sake of closer ties
with Africa when it invited Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for a
visit in January. Officials said President Abdullah Gül publicly made
clear that Turkey did not support al-Bashir’s Darfur policy when he
met with the Sudanese president, but emphasized that any initiative
to open up to Africa would remain incomplete without ties with Sudan,
which makes up one-fifth of the entire African continent.
15.02.2008
FATMA DEMÝRELLÝ ÝSTANBUL