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1181. Decoding the Rise of Euroskepticism in Turkey

Author:
Mehmet Bardakçı
Publication Date:
10-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Insight Turkey
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
Since 2004 there has been a dramatic drop in the support expressed by the Turkish public for the EU and the Turkish membership. Many factors were at work for this downward trend of Turkish people's perceptions of the EU including the Cyprus policy, the Armenian genocide claims, the EU's treatment of Turkey as a special case, vocal objections raised by the EU leaders as well as the public to Turkey's EU membership, the economic costs of the accession process, nationalist backlash as a result of the resumption of PKK terrorism, mutual rise in negative perceptions of the Muslim and Western world at large in the post-September 11 process. Therefore, amid growing anti-European sentiments in domestic politics it became increasingly difficult for the ruling AKP to sustain the EU reform agenda.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, and Armenia

1182. Book Reviews

Publication Date:
10-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Insight Turkey
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
Salwa Ismail, Political Life in Cairo's New Urban Quarters: Encountering the Everyday State University of Minnesota Press, 2006, 264 p, $22,50, ISBN 0-8166-4912-X by Joanna Odencrantz   M. Hakan Yavuz (ed.), The Emergence of a New Turkey: Democracy and the AK Party University of Utah Press, 2006, 368 pp., $25, ISBN 978-0-87480-863-6 by Barış Kesgin   Guenter Lewy, The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide The University of Utah Press, 2005, 370 p., $23, ISBN 978-0-87480-890-2 by Fatih Balcı and Arif Akgül   Jillian Schwedler, Faith in Moderation: Islamist Parties in Jordan and Yemen  Cambridge University Press, 2006, 276 p., $29.99, ISBN 0-521-85113-0 by Hüseyin Alptekin
Topic:
Islam
Political Geography:
Turkey and Armenia

1183. From Ankara to Annapolis: Turkey and the Middle East Peace Process

Author:
Selin M. Bölme
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
The two-day summit in Annapolis ended on 29 November, 2007. Israel and the Palestine Authority agreed to start a new peace initiative. The Annapolis Summit has a special significance for Turkey. Israeli President Shimon Peres and President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas came together in Ankara before the Annapolis Summit. This important and progressive initiative represents the changing vision of Turkish foreign policy. Turkey had been keen to get involved in the peace process for a long time. Now, Turkey has a chance to be a new actor in the process, one with fresh and new ideas.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution
Political Geography:
Turkey, Middle East, Israel, and Palestine

1184. 2007 EU Progress Report on Turkey: A Step Forward?

Author:
Mesut Özcan
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
The EU progress reports on candidate countries are important indicators of how EU institutions manage and monitor the accession process. The 2007 European Union progress report on Turkey's EU membership gives a comprehensive account of how EU evaluates the political developments in Turkey. While the report is overall positive and supportive of the reform agenda of the AK Party government, it contains legitimate criticisms as well as debatable assessments on the Cyprus issue. Despite the shortcomings, Turkey should continue its efforts to strengthen democratization and focus on public diplomacy in the EU member countries.
Topic:
Democratization and Diplomacy
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, and Middle East

1185. The Strategic Benefits of Turkey's Admission Into East Asian Summit

Author:
Kim Beng Phar
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
To fulfill Turkey's mission as a ʺcivilizational connectorʺ between Europe and Asia, Turkey must be a full member of the East Asian Summit. The path towards this goal, among others, requires Turkey to be a Dialogue Partner of ASEAN. Once ASEAN sponsors Turkey's membership in East Asian Summit, Turkey would then be strategically positioned to be a key member with some of the world's most monumental economic and political powers in its midst. Indeed, if Turkey is a member of East Asian Summit, ideally by 2010, Turkey would be in a better position to realize its strategic, civilizational, and historical depth.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and International Organization
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, Middle East, Israel, and East Asia

1186. Turkey's War on Terror

Author:
Bülent Aras
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
In an age of war on terror, Turkey pursues its own war against the escalating PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) terror. The dynamics that led to a parliamentary motion for a cross border operation into Northern Iraq will have implications for Turkey's relations with Washington, Baghdad and other capitals in the region. The Expanded Meeting of the Neighboring Countries of Iraq held in Istanbul on 2-3 November 2007 coincided with Turkey's intensive regional diplomacy. There are serious challenges to ending PKK terrorism and finding a lasting solution to the Kurdish problem. The Erdogan Government must fight terrorism in a way that will not jeopardize the process of democratization and political reforms in Turkey.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Democratization, Terrorism, and War
Political Geography:
Iraq, Washington, Turkey, Middle East, and Baghdad

1187. Turkey's Bid for the New Constitution

Author:
Zühtü Arslan
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
This paper aims to analyse the basic parameters of the new draft constitution in Turkey. Having outlined the radical amendments to the current Constitution in terms of both fundamental rights and state organs, the paper takes up the procedural and substantial criticisms directed against the draft Constitution. It also contains a number of policy recommendations for taking necessary measures to ensure the broadest possible participation of the Turkish people in the constitution making process. The paper concludes that adoption of the proposed constitution will remove the physcological obstacle to democratisation of the Turkish political regime by disproving the deeply embedded belief that civilians in Turkey cannot make a new constitution under truly democratic circumstances.
Topic:
Government, Political Economy, and Politics
Political Geography:
Turkey and Middle East

1188. UNIFIL: Old lessons for the new force

Author:
Richard Gowan
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation
Abstract:
Peacekeeping is a repetitive business. All too often, international forces are required to return to crumbling states that have already played host to one or more peace operations – and in some cases seem to have become dependent on outside interventions. Take Haiti, to which five separate UN missions have been deployed in the last fifteen years. Or Timor-Leste, which remained stable for less than five months after the UN departed in December 2005 – UN police are back there now, alongside Australian troops. Or, looking at a longer timeframe, think of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the 1960s, the UN deployed nearly 20,000 troops to the former Belgian colony. Today, it has similar-sized force back in the country - few analysts believe it should withdraw soon. And then there is Lebanon. Next year will be the thirtieth anniversary of the UN's first deployment to the south of the country. After last summer's crisis and the ensuing surge of UN troops, there may be blue helmets around to mark such anniversaries for a while yet. And it is possible to identify a series of recurring patterns in Lebanese peacekeeping.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Peace Studies, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Turkey, Middle East, and Lebanon

1189. Global Terrorism: Multilateral Institutional Responses to an Extraordinary Threat

Author:
Eric Rosand
Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
In recent years, the traditional tendency to treat non state actors that resort to terrorist violence as a domestic issue has given way to an increasing focus on international—and multilateral—responses Nationalist/ separatist terrorist groups such as the Kurdistan Peoples Party (PKK) in Turkey, the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) in Sri Lanka, or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) generated only limited responses at the multilateral level. The emergence of transnational terrorism in the 1970s led to a spate of international law-making to facilitate inter-state cooperation in response to hijacking, hostage-taking and other forms of terrorism. But only with the emergence of Al Qaeda, with its extraordinary global reach, has the transnational threat moved to the top of the agenda of international for a such as the United Nations and G8.
Topic:
International Relations, Globalization, International Law, Terrorism, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Turkey, Sri Lanka, Colombia, and Kurdistan

1190. Greek-Turkish Rapprochement under New Democracy

Author:
James Ker-Lindsay
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
New Democracy's victory in the March 2004 Greek elections immediately raised questions about the continued development of the process of rapprochement between Greece and Turkey, which had started five years earlier in 1999. However, concerns were misplaced. The incoming administration made it clear that it intended to maintain the policy of détente. Like the previous PASOK government, it sought to minimise the role of Cyprus as a factor in bilateral relations and continued to support Turkey's membership of the European Union. Where differences did arise between New Democracy and PASOK, they appeared to be more a result of the differing styles of George Papandreou and Petros Molyviatis, the two foreign ministers, than as a result of any significant disparity in basic foreign policy principles.
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, and Jayapura