EUROPE STRATEGY IN FAVOR OF TURKEY
Panorama.am
18:27 06/04/2009
EU Foreign Policy Chief and Secretary-General of the Council of the
European Union Javier Solana talked about, the so called, Turkish
issues in his two interviews given in the previous weeks. In one
of his interviews Solana has reminded about the Armenian-Turkish
relations. To the reporter’s question from Turkish "Today’s Zaman"
whether the resolutions adopted by the EU member countries’ National
Parliaments could contribute to the regulation of Armenian-Turkish
relations, Mr. Solana answered: "I believe that history is a history.
I don’t think that it should be everyday put on the table. The
historians should study the history. And the relations between the
countries, in this particular case between Armenia and Turkey should be
recovered and restarted." Attention! Mr. Solana has announced neither
genocide nor something reminding it. But the Turkish and Azerbaijani
mass media shout that Javier Solan is against the recognition of
Armenian Genocide. Of course, Mr. Solana’s statement regarding
"leaving the history to the historians" is full of concerns as it
repeats the position of the official Ankara.
Some other evaluations made by Mr. Solana prove his Turkish
orientation. In the same interview quoted above, Javier Solana ensured
that irrespective of the incident between the Prime Minister of Turkey
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the President of Israel Shimon Peres, the
role of the Turkey has not been reduced in the region.
Even more, Mr. Solana sent a "message" by a Turkish paper to the Israel
Government stressing that he has some problems with them. Another
German paper "Hamburger Abendsblatt" published an interview given by
Javier Solana. Regarding the Turkey’s participation to the European
Union Mr. Solana said: "Turkey is a candidate to the EU membership
and it has been agreed among the EU members. Negotiations on certain
points are being conducted. I see no obstacles for Turkey to join
the EU." It’s impossible to leave out Solana’s pro-Turkish view
points. What’s the reason to it? Probably, the decisions made in G20
and NATO summits have some answers.
It is quite natural that due to its size, geographical position,
economic and political significances Turkey is important for Europe. It
is a special corridor and a buffer also. Let’s think: energy security
in European security has no sense without Turkey’s participation. It
is enough to throw a glaze on the map to see that the only way to
pass Russia and join Europe to the energy sources is Turkey. Due to
Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute, cold Europe thought of doing favor to
Turkey. Second: Turkey occupies the geographical territory to join
Europe with Near and Middle East.
It is already announced that American troops should leave the territory
of Iraq soon. And the West is ready to carry out stabilization
functions in Iraq. Of course, Turkey which has a great interest
in Kurdish deal and has much practice will be a part of it. So
Turkish-European ties are powerful enough. But Turkey wants more –
membership to European Union. Europe is against it but they prefer
not to touch upon it.
The reasons are obvious – civilization unity is the basis of European
integration, and Turkey has nothing to do with it.
Regarding Solana’s statement to leave history to historians we would
like to remind that history is not a matter of fact of the historians
only. We are sure that the EU Chairman is aware that current European
Community has the impact of history and its lessons.