Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Sept 6 2009

Turkey’s regional moves ease its EU bid, while widening EU’s horizon

If he were giving university lectures now and were asked to present a
case study showing how a relationship moves from crisis to vision, he
would cite Turkish-Iraqi relations, which have improved since the
DaÄ?lıca attack in October 2007, as an example, Foreign
Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu stated earlier this week.

In October 2007, the DaÄ?lıca military outpost in
southeastern Anatolia was attacked by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK), and 12 soldiers were killed, while eight other soldiers
were captured and held for two weeks by the PKK before being released
in a mountainous area in northern Iraq. A Turkish land operation
against the PKK was launched into northern Iraq in February 2008 and
was followed by a landmark visit to Turkey by Iraqi President Jalal
Talabani. The two countries are now preparing to hold `joint cabinet
meetings’ in the near future under the name High-Level Strategic
Cooperation Council, with Ankara voicing its readiness to engage in
limitless cooperation with other countries in the region in order to
once again turn the Mesopotamian Basin, which was once the cradle of a
succession of glorious civilizations, into a prosperous area.

DavutoÄ?lu, a professor of political science and international
relations, was speaking a day after Armenia and Turkey announced on
Monday that they have agreed to submit two protocols to their
respective parliaments for internal debate, which will hopefully
result in them being ratified and the countries’ mutual border being
opened.

It is not possible to say whether Armenia and Turkey, the two
estranged neighbors, will, after all this time, have the friendly ties
they are aiming for just by looking at the progress in relations with
Iraq. However, one has to appreciate that Iraq is not the only
neighbor with which Turkey has managed to change the nature of its
relationship in a positive way. In the autumn of 1998, Syria and
Turkey came to the brink of war over the presence of the now-jailed
leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ã-calan, in Syria. At the time, Turkish
troops were marshaled along the border with Syria, with Ankara
demanding that Damascus cease its support for the PKK and hand over
Ã-calan.

Today, Ankara and Damascus are considering establishing a similar
strategic mechanism to the one between Turkey and Iraq, while Turkey
last year mediated several rounds of indirect peace negotiations
between Israel and Syria.

EU’s good-neighborhood principle

All of the background mentioned above is not meant to serve as
rose-colored glasses showing Turkey in a problem-free neighborhood. In
addition to still absent normalization of relations with Armenia, the
Cyprus issue is standing as a major obstacle to Ankara’s European
Union bid. Additionally, the exchange of strong remarks on the issue
of Cyprus and territorial matters between Aegean neighbors Greece and
Turkey has apparently intensified recently.

The EU, which opened accession talks with Ankara — an EU candidate
since 1999 — in October 2005, has constantly stressed the importance
of its good-neighborhood principle in its various reports evaluating
Turkey’s progress.

Ankara’s bold foreign policy moves regarding its region, meanwhile,
indicate its intention to go beyond a `zero-problem policy’ in its
neighborhood by reaching out for the creation of an atmosphere of
maximum cooperation among all its neighbors.

`Turkey has actually been designing a sub-system in which all
neighboring countries in the Balkans, the Caucasus, Eurasia and the
Black Sea can have an impact on global developments by uniting their
forces. There is no place for any kind of gap in such a system. Cyprus
and Armenia are the two major obstacles in this maximum cooperation,’
Bülent Aras, a professor of international relations in the
department of humanities and social sciences at Ä°stanbul
Technical University, told Sunday’s Zaman.

Aras noted that efforts regarding Armenia are evident, while in
addition Turkey is also making serious efforts to resolve the Cyprus
issue this autumn. According to Aras, in order to attain its vision of
becoming a regional power, Turkey has to get rid of troublesome
aspects in its bilateral relations, and the recent move regarding
Armenia is one such move to get rid of one of the troubles that has
always stood before Turkey as an obstacle.

`The EU has always encouraged the resolution of problems in Turkey’s
neighborhood so that these problems would not have any negative impact
on the EU. However, Turkey, instead of just resolving the problems and
then building walls between itself and that neighborhood, is
designing, favoring and constituting a maximum level of cooperation
with that neighborhood. Thus, it is implementing principles of the
highest level of dialogue and mutual dependency. Such policymaking and
implementation is more European than the EU itself. The EU has little
activity in the Caucasus and the Middle East. With its proactive
policy regarding those regions, Turkey is increasing its activity
there without even becoming a member of the EU,’ Aras explained.

Turkey says `check’

Ã-zdem Sanberk, a former undersecretary at the Foreign Ministry and
an esteemed foreign policy analyst, speaking with Sunday’s Zaman,
first of all described his reaction to those who suggest that Turkey’s
recent agreement with Armenia was a result of pressure from the United
States. Underlining that finding a resolution to the dispute regarding
Armenia has been on the Turkish foreign policy agenda for decades,
Sanberk recalled the contact between then-Turkish President
Süleyman Demirel and then-Armenian President Robert Kocharian
in the late 1990s and used them as an example.

`Attempts [to resolve] this issue have never dropped from the Turkish
side’s agenda. However, the international conjuncture has never been
as ripe as it is now. What I can see is that the government is taking
advantage of this conjuncture. [US President Barack] Obama came here
and mentioned the issue; this is not something bad because our
interests in resolving this issue match those of the US. Obama’s
honeymoon in the White House is still going on, and he is still
powerful, but nobody can guarantee that he will not fall into [former
US President George W.] Bush’s situation in two years’ time. When he
becomes less powerful, he will also be prone to pressure from certain
lobby groups,’ Sanberk said.

During a landmark visit to Turkey, Obama appealed for reconciliation
between Ankara and Yerevan. Obama, who pledged to recognize the
Armenian diaspora’s genocide claims in his election campaign, avoided
using the g-word in his traditional April 24 message.

`As for Europe, they are at least registering the positive
developments. As for Russia, it doesn’t want yet another crisis in its
neighborhood after its dispute with Georgia last year. Given that
there is such a positive environment and such a political background,
Turkey’s step toward untying this knot is an extremely legitimate and
righteous step,’ the veteran diplomat said.

`Without untying this knot, Turkey is unable to settle on decisive
policies in the Caucasus, and this entangled position in foreign
policy, which is stems from ideological radicalization, also nourishes
and triggers polarization and radicalization inside the country. This
is a very important dimension. On the other side, as these genocide
allegations are more openly and widely discussed, our thesis gains
power because taboos in the global arena nourished by Armenian lobbies
have been shaken,’ he said.

Strength of political correctness

`There is a shockwave moving around the world, and we’re just at the
beginning. If we can manage this shockwave moving around the world
appropriately and inform public opinion in a healthy way, then we can
pass on to the approval process more comfortably,’ he said, referring
to the parliamentary approval of two protocols which Ankara and
Yerevan announced they plan to sign within six weeks under the plan to
normalize relations.

`There is nothing to be lost; on the contrary, there is a situation
where Turkey said `check’ in this chess game. Like in 2004, when
Turkey campaigned for approval of the UN-led reunification plan for
Cyprus, Turkey has again put itself in a politically correct
situation."

Suat KınıklıoÄ?lu , the deputy chairman for
external affairs for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK
Party), said he observed the shock among his European counterparts,
calling it more a reaction of puzzlement. He spoke with Sunday’s Zaman
by telephone from abroad.

Both the process regarding Armenia and the government’s recent
initiative on the resolution of the Kurdish issue have had very
positive receptions in Europe, and these developments have regional
meanings beyond the EU itself, KınıklıoÄ?lu
said.

`For example, normalization between Turkey and Armenia will have an
overall impact on the South Caucasus, and it is highly possible that
it will also have positive impacts on energy security in Europe. When
you look at the overall picture, the Kurdish issue, the Armenia move,
the Cyprus negotiations, Turkey’s bid to resolve the recent dispute
between Iraq and Syria; all of these moves give a clue about Turkey
and its foreign policy establishment’s capacity to undergo different
processes at the same time. I sense a feeling of disbelief when I
speak to my European friends. They are still trying to understand and
comprehend these moves. Some European friends may have difficulty
digesting Turkey’s role and determination in foreign policy
initiatives but, at the end of the day, they will have to accept the
reality that Turkey has been undertaking all of these moves both for
itself and its region,’ he continued.

EU’s applause not enough

`Some European actors who are not used to seeing such strong will from
Turkey may have some feelings of jealousy toward Turkey, but this is
natural,’ KınıklıoÄ?lu also suggested.

Like Aras, speaking of the EU’s stance vis-Ã-vis Turkey, Sanberk
particularly recalled how the EU has always urged Turkey to maintain
its internal stability and also play a role in the maintenance of
regional stability so that Turkey’s internal instability and regional
instability would not have a negative impact on `us, on our
territory.’

`This is actually in a way telling Turkey to serve as a buffer zone
for the EU without eventually becoming a member. Turkey has been
working hard to make contributions to the resolution of regional
conflicts; we have been carrying the burdens, but we have not been
taking our share of the benefits. The EU’s applause is not sufficient
vis-Ã-vis Turkey’s efforts toward security and stability, which
should not be regarded as charitable acts,’ Sanberk warned.

`Turkey should center its focus on EU membership and explain that it
will play this role of promoting security and stability much better
when it becomes a member. Turkey should clearly show the EU that it’s
neither naïve nor a dummy,’ he said.

06 September 2009, Sunday
EMINE KART TODAY’S ZAMAN