|
|
October 8, 2011
Turkey – Iraq Turkey – Bulgaria Turkey – Greece Turkey – Ukraine These are not football matches. These are the next high level strategic meetings that Turkey and Ahmet Davutoğlu have organised. Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs Ahmet Davutoğlu was Mehmet Ali Birand’s guest at his weekly “32nd day” TV program. At the end of… » read more
October 3, 2011
The politicians and the media who say that Turkey is an Islamic democracy are mistaken or ignorant. Turkey is a democratic and secular republic. And unlike several EU countries, it is an independent country. Turkey is a modern republic. Only then we can say that it is a country – mainly – of Muslim religion.… » read more
September 30, 2011
The 1964 Association Agreement between the “European Economic Community” (EEC) and Turkey provided for the establishment of far-reaching economic cooperation, from a customs union to free movement of labour; in the preamble it also contained a reference to possible membership of what was at that time a union of modest ambitions and achievements. The almost… » read more
Over the last two weeks, Turkish diplomacy went all out to capitalise on the country’s increasing international clout. President Abdullah Gul has made a 4-day visit to Germany, Turkey’s main European partner, whereas premier Erdogan has made a highly publicised visit to Egypt and has recently met with President Obama in New York to discuss… » read more
September 29, 2011
Joschka Fischer stated yesterday through El Pais that Turkey has neo-Ottoman policies because Merkel and Sarkozy froze Turkey’s EU membership process. Following many politicians and media, Mr Joschka Fischer is wrong. Turkey has no neo-Ottoman policies but a Zero problem with the neighbours policy. Is it so difficult to understand? Turkey doesn’t deepen its ties… » read more
Montenegrin daily newspaper “Vijesti” reported about the meeting that President of ruling DPS party Milo Djukanovic, held last Thursday with selected Montenegrin public figures (who are mostly identified as “defenders of national identity”). He shared his vision of the situation in Montenegro, the region and the European Union, and it was mentioned that the EU… » read more
September 25, 2011
“If you want to use a word “genocide” (for Srebrenica) – then OK, but we need a new word to replace the old “genocide” word…” (Noam Chomsky) Srebrenica: A Town Betrayed a Norwegian documentary film directed by Ola Flyum and David Hebditch is now free to watch in Youtube. The film approaches Srebrenica tragedy from… » read more
September 22, 2011
At a debate on EU membership organised by the Spectator on 20 September (read a report here), leading eurosceptic Daniel Hannan MEP compared the UK unfavourably with Switzerland. The Swiss experience of non-membership of the EU, he said, has been more beneficial than the UK experience of membership. We are poorer, both in economic terms… » read more
|
English, enlargement, EU Priorities 2020, Euro & Finance, Member States |
September 20, 2011
Derviş speaks to AA on Turkey’s economy Vice-president of Brookings Institute and a member of the Sabanci University Advisory Board, Kemal Derviş has spoken to AA on Turkey’s economy. Derviş said Monday that if Turkey’s dynamism continued, it could go much further in the next 10 years than it did in the past 10 years.… » read more
September 19, 2011
During the last two months relations between Turkey and Cyprus have worsened to an extent unheard of for years. In the most recent days, Turkish politicians have gone the point of threatening with naval force in case the Cypriot government would go ahead with drilling for gas in its economic zone and, even worse, the… » read more
Ridiculous Turkish threats only aim at maintaining the status quo. Turkey cannot win anything else out of this and a war would have unpleasant consequences for Turkish interests. Turkey has been producing a lot of noise lately with respect to a number of actions taken by the Republic of Cyprus regarding its sovereign power over… » read more
September 18, 2011
I quote from EurActiv: A written statement issued by EU Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Commissioner Stefan Füle’s office last week read that “the Commission regrets any statements that are not conducive to the objective of peaceful settlement of border disputes” and recalled that “the Council of Ministers has repeatedly underlined the importance of progress in… » read more
|
English, enlargement, EU Institutions, EU Priorities 2020, Member States |
September 16, 2011
British prime minister Mr David Cameron is disappointing for two reasons. To begin with, he visited Turkey last year and stated that he would strongly support Turkey’s EU membership cause within the European Union. But as far as I know, he has done nothing. No fight against Sarkozy and Merkel. On the contrary, he teamed… » read more
September 14, 2011
Hélène Flautre stated last year that many politicians and governments of the European Union are jealous of Turkey’s role in its regions such as the Middle East and the Balkans. She is right, because several politicians (as well as several media) proved it again. They are also disturbed of a politically – and economically –… » read more
July 7, 2011
Perhaps the biggest ever media scandal rocks Britain, with Rupert Murdoch’s empire being shattered by a storm of public revulsion, at last. The tabloid News of the World takes centerstage, as it became known that it had tapped the phones of victims of the 2005 London bombings to get scoops. Also, News of the world… » read more
Map of the area Image source: BBC On July 2 2011, for the first time since the former province of Kossovo seceded from Serbia and unilaterally declared its independence, Belgrade and Pristina signed an agreement under the mediation of Catherine Ashton’s European External Action Service (EEAS), that aims at simplifying and facilitating the everyday lives… » read more
July 1, 2011
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk mentioned Croatia at least ten times, as he was receiving the baton of the EU Presidency from his Hungarian colleague Viktor Orban. He obviously wanted to stress the biggest success of his predecessor, namely the closure of the Croatia accession talks. And to inspire a winning spirit to the entire… » read more
The anti-Turkey politcians within the EU have always stated that an EU member Turkey would mean the end of the EU. Well the EU is currently collapsing, though Turkey is not a member yet. In the first instance we are in 2011 and although everybody knows that Turkey is not an EU member, the EU… » read more
Author: Ivana Srdikj Since June 6, 2011 up until today, youngsters in Macedonia have been asking themselves whether they live in a safe place. After young Martin Neskovski was killed by a police representative, Macedonian citizens gathered to speak out against police brutality and to ask for justice. Once news were spread via Twitter and… » read more
In my last article published last saturday I partly dealt with the power of the Greek Church and its influence in politics. And last sunday ABhaber published an interview (in Turkish) with Anna Karamanou – a former Greek politician – who on the one hand called into question and criticised the Greek politicians (she said… » read more
