Karen Bekaryan: Turkey ruins its own reputation
NEWS.am
20:52 / 12/12/2009
By dissolving the only Kurdish party represented in the Turkish
Parliament, Turkey delivered one more blow on its own reputation,
Karen Bekaryan, Chairman of the European integration NGO, told
NEWS.am. According to him, Turkey has recently committed serious
mistakes in implementing its foreign policy, and has created a serious
domestic political problem for itself by dissolving the Kurdish party.
`The party has just been dissolved, and the event has not yet evoked
many responses outside Turkey, but the dissolution of the party will
not only affect the domestic political situation, but also deliver a
blow on the country’s reputation,’ the expert said. Bekaryan believes
that `Turkey’s attempts to implement an independent foreign policy
worsened its relations with the United States and Israel, which are
Turkey’s traditional strategic partners.’
`Turkey’s relations with Israel came to mutual insults, and its
relations with the United States even worsened when Premier Recep
Erdogan rejected President Barack Obama’s proposal to dispatch troops
to Afghanistan,’ Bekaryan said. `Afghanistan is a priority for the
United States and NATO, and Turkey is the second NATO member-state in
terms of numerical strength,’ he said. `The superpowerful European
lobby’s unfavorable attitude to Turkey will play a great role in the
Turkey-U.S. relations,’ Bekaryan said. He believes that the judgment
on dissolution of the Kurdish party will complicate the negotiations
for Turkey’s membership in the EU.
`Neighboring Iran gave a slap in Turkey’s face by flatly rejecting its
proposal for uranium enrichment. Turkey has tarnished its
international reputation and cannot find any further pretexts for
keeping the Armenian-Turkish border closed. If Turkey refuses to
reopen the border, the world powers will give a prompt response – the
United States and other countries, which are interested in the border
being reopened, will recognize the Armenian Genocide,’ the expert
said.
T.P.
From: Baghdasarian