Fed up with EU, Cyprus, Turkey eyes Nagorno-Karabakh

"Turkey’s relations with the EU took another blow last week. The European Parliament is not known for its “softly, softly” approach, and its recent resolution on Turkey  bears witness to that. It has been at its harshest for years with even reasonably Turkey-friendly political groups, such as the Social Democrats, being more critical. Needless to say, Ankara  was not impressed. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s immediate reaction was to lash out and label it unbalanced," the daily reports.

"The report gives an overview of the current state of the reform process. There is a lot of concern over slow progress on human rights and other key reforms. It also reports that "an overall constitutional reform" is still needed to transform Turkey into a real democracy. There is unease over the Ergenekon and Sledgehammer coup cases and there is increasing concern over freedom of the press following the arrests of more than 24 journalists over the last few weeks. Erdogan has dismissed these claims, saying European parliamentarians have no clue on what goes on in the country," the daily reads.

"The report also slams Turkey on relations with Greece and Cyprus, criticizing Turkey’s failure to lift the Turkish Parliament’s "casus belli" threat against Greece and stressing that it expects the Turkish government to stop continuous violations of Greek airspace, including flights by Turkish fighter jets over Greek islands,” the source says.

"Turkey is frustrated by what it perceives as a double-standard approach to the country vis-à-vis membership talks, which are impacted by the EU’s seemingly intransigent approach to visa facilitation and visa liberalization. Ankara has already postponed numerous laws requiring EU harmonization because, without the EU goal, the financial burden seems too great," the daily reports.

"It seems Turkey has put its reform agenda on the back burner. It may be, therefore, some time. Instead, Ankara has switched its focus to other foreign policy issues. Rather than dealing with Cyprus, it has decided to look again at the South Caucasus and put its fingers back into the Nagorno-Karabakh pie," the author stresses.

"Ankara, together with Baku, has come up with a multistage plan that, if it were to be successful, would bring an end to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict -- something the international community has been trying to do for almost two decades. The plan foresees the return to Azerbaijan of five of its seven territories currently occupied by Armenia, an international peacekeeping force and the return of Azerbaijani internally displaced persons (IDPs) to their former homes (nearly 1 million were displaced during the war). This step would also include the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border. Further down the line another two Azerbaijani territories would be returned, with Karabakh having an interim status including a degree of self-rule. Eventually (at least 10 or 15 years), the final status of Karabakh would be determined. Indeed, many of these elements (not the border opening) are already foreseen in the set of basic principles that are currently being negotiated by Azerbaijan and Armenia," the source reads.

"Armenia has rejected the proposal, with the government spokesman responding that Turkey has nothing to do with Karabakh conflict resolution, claiming that further Turkish interference would only serve to damage the peace process further. In 2010, when Turkey decided to link the resolution of the conflict to its own rapprochement with Armenia, it had a very negative impact on the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group mediated peace talks. This new proposal seems to make the exact same link, only it is wrapped in different packaging. The international community made it clear that the two issues are separate. The simple fact is that Turkey is not a neutral player; it is therefore unable to be part of the Karabakh peace talks," the daily says.


/Today's Zaman/