Mavi Boncuk: EU and “ahde vefa” [pacta sunt servanda]

EU and “ahde vefa”

The recommendation adopted by the European Commission on July 15 2009 allows the citizens of Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia with biometric passports to enter the Schengen area visa-free from January 2010
Mavi Boncuk |

Pacta sunt servanda L./Ahde vefa TR /agreements must be kept ENG., is a basic principle of civil law and of international law.

( EU must explain this part to Turkey)

In its most common sense, the principle refers to private contracts, stressing that contained clauses are law between the parties, and implies that non-fulfilment of respective obligations is a breach of the pact. The general principle of correct behaviour in commercial praxis — and implies the bona fide — is a requirement for the efficacy of the whole system, so the eventual disorder is sometimes punished by the law of some systems even without any direct penalty incurred by any of the parties.

EU Places Early Member Candidates at Head of Line, Snubbing Turkey

from Kamil Pasha by Jenny White

The EU lifted visa restrictions Saturday for citizens from Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro, even though these are in the early stages of the EU membership process, while not extending this Schengen privilege to Turkey, which began accession talks in 2005 and has opened 11 out of 35 chapters in its membership negotiations. Turkey protested and has asked to be included in the Schengen regime, pointing out that, of the Balkan states affected, only Macedonia has attained the status of EU candidate. Serbia has yet to submit a formal application and its entry has been stalled due to its failure to arrest ex-Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic, who has been charged with war crimes in the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica and the siege of Sarajevo.

Trust in EU drops in Turkey: Survey [ WORLD BULLETIN- TURKEY NEWS, WORLD NEWS ]

Erdoğan comes back to Turkey earlier than expected…

He has to be here as the conspiratorial provocations emerge.

Hürriyet comments on the body language of two leaders. Here are 19 photos to comment.

Turkish Ambassador to US Resigns:

Nabi Sensoy, Turkish Ambassador to the US since 1966, reportedly resigned on Tuesday and asked to be reassigned, three months short of his retirement. No official reason has been given, but Turkish newspapers report that Ambassador Sensoy had been asked by Ankara to forward a request to the White House that the Turkish ambassador also attend the meeting between Prime Minister Erdogan and President Obama, but that Sensoy did not do so. (click here, in Turkish). OR that Sensoy had been asked by Ankara to set up the meeting to also include Ahmet Davutoglu and Hillary Clinton, that the US administration refused this format, and that Davutoglu had blamed Sensoy. (This is all unconfirmed gossip.)

“EU regrets…”

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Baroness Catherine Ashton, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and EU commissineer Olhi Rehn give a press conference at the end of the session of the EU General Affairs & External Relations Council in Brussels. European foreign ministers criticised Turkey for failing to deal normally with Cyprus.(AFP/Georges Gobet)

Finally an official EU center in Istanbul, Fitch increases Turkey’s ratings, Dutch MPs cancel trip

The new EU Center in Beşiktaş. DHA photo.
The EU Center will be jointly facilitated by the Turkish Ministry of State’s EU General Secretariat and the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s EU Affairs Department. VIA

FT.com | Brussels Blog | EU leaders face make-or-break summit decision on Turkey

Turkey and the EU: hurtful uncertainty | Şevket Pamuk | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Istanbul Metro Station, Taksim: Turkish Conquest of Constantinople. Photo by Jenny White

(click here for the full NY Times article). FOUND IN: Ottomania: The Empire Strikes Back
Dutch MPs cancel trip to Turkey | Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Disappointment in Turkey over cancelled trip

Turkish MPs are disappointed the Dutch parliament has cancelled a fact-finding mission about the country’s wishes to join the European Union, the NRC reports on Thursday.

Wilders and Turkey’s anti-democratization camp

by KLAUS JURGENS

Foresight analysis measures the potential impacts of foreign and domestic policy actions. For the purpose of writing this column I have chosen a number of Dutch and Turkish actors as part of a simulation exercise, and without meaning it to be derogatory in any way, have put them into a grid system of four adjacent boxes.

BB+ for Turkey

from Mavi Boncuk by M.A.M

ASSETS
* Thanks to economic growth and tight fiscal policy, since the 2001 financial crisis, public sector debt has come down to manageable levels..
* Reforms and restructuring have strengthened the banking sector.
* Economic growth rests on more solid foundations, driven by a dynamic private sector, productivity gains, and higher value-added production.
* The prospect of economic convergence with the European Union, demographic dynamism, and the country’s pivotal regional position tend to enhance the Turkish market’s attractiveness.
WEAKNESSES
* With its extensive external financing needs, the highest of all emerging countries, Turkey remains very dependent on capital markets.
* The sharp rise of foreign currency debt in the private sector has increased its exposure to exchange rate risk.
* The antagonism between the government and militant Kemalists remains a recurring source of instability.

Newsweek finally does some journalistic work on Turkey…

Newsweek seems to have stepped aside for the moment from what I would call Çağaptay effect. For a few years, Mr. Çağaptay with his secularist-Kemalist crusader ideology seemed to have dominated Newsweek’s look at Turkish politics. Now there appear two articles that discuss Turkey’s new foreign policy and its architect, Ahmet Davutoğlu. Finally, an innovative work…

Burhan Ozbilici / AP

Parliamentary Briefing: Davutoglu addresses lawmakers on plans to improve Turkey’s relations with Armenia and

Azerbaijan.

Meet the Man Shaping Turkey’s New Diplomacy

What you need to know about the person shaping Turkey’s muscular new foreign policy.

Carl Bildt stopped by Istanbul

Turkey’s Shifting Diplomacy

from NYT > Turkey by By ALASTAIR CROOKE

Frustrated by Europe and the U.S., Ankara is bolstering its ties with Iran, Syria and Iraq.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt (L),Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (C) and Turkey’s Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis (R) pose for media before their Turkey-EU Troika Ministerial meeting in Istanbul November 26, 2009. REUTERS/Osman Orsal

What happens if the Dutch delegation does not come because Turks do not want a racist, useless, criminal-minded b*****d included in the delegation?

Nothing happens except the Dutch loses…

Turkey say NO to Wilders

from Internation Musing: Istanbul, Athens, Amsterdam, Patra, Utrecht, by Internation Musing

Turkey has announced that a Dutch parliamentary delegation will not be welcome if it includes Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders. Turkish ministers and MPs will refuse to meet the entire delegation if Wilders is among them. A spokesperson for the Turkish foreign ministry says: “This man has racist ideas. We fear his presence would overshadow the visit”. The popular Turkish daily Aksam was the first to report the news on yesterday: “Tension over Mozart”, the paper’s headline read, apparently referring to the Freedom Party leader’s exotic hairdo.

CHP’s views on the Kurdish Question

Main opposition party, CHP, has recently opened up an office in Brussels. Some thought it as a good sign that finally CHP would actually support the EU process. There has not been any positive signs though. In the mean time, Brussels office sends email-bulletins. The last one was about CHP’s views on the Kurdish Question. EU leadership proves to be more and more naive and I guess in this respect good, abstract but without substance statements may have an impact on EU public. If only ignores the fact that CHP triggers more nationalist hysteria than nationalist MHP does…Below, there is also a roundup on the EU-TR relations and TR’s Foreign Policy moves…

CHP VIEWS AND PROPOSALS ON THE KURDISH QUESTION

The Turkish Parliament debated the government’s initiative on the Kurdish question on November 10th and 13th.

Background: In 1991, the first proposal of law in Turkey on the abolishment of all obstacles to the use of the Kurdish language was a social-democratic initiative. It was signed and introduced by Mr Deniz Baykal and his colleagues. In 2002, during the rule of the coalition government (Social-Democrats-Liberals-Nationalists) several reforms were adopted to allow the teaching and broadcasting in Kurdish. Recently, the Turkish government declared its intention to implement a new reform on the ethnic issues without making public its proposal. CHP responded in reminding its previous comprehensive reports on the Kurdish question and its very recent concrete proposals.

Part II in pro-Ergenekon lobby at work in NYT…

NYT continues to embark on a shameful mission. Probably due to tensions between Turkey and Israel, NYT began to hit at Turkey’s probably the grandest trial for further democratization. Yesterday Mr. Bilefsky’s NYT article re-apperead on the Ergenekon trial: In Turkey, Trial Casts Wide Net of Mistrust

The article is built on already notarious sources who aims at destroying the trial from the outset (including Süheyl Batum, a law professor from Bahçeşehir U)

Israel no longer trusts Turkey, Erdogan says | Reuters

Herman Van Rompuy, the new EU president; Baroness Ashton, the new EU Foreign Affairs Minister

Not particularly good for Turkey’s EU fantasies. Mr. Van Rompuy is known to be against Turkey’s membership.. I still work on a roundup from the Turkish press. let’s what Turks think… However, nearly all presidential candidates were against Turkey, so this is not the most surprising situation.

Having two low profile political figures for the EU’s top positions maybe a strategy to downgrade the importance of these positions. Nation states are still very important in EU-wide policy making and this leaves EU still relying on nation state fantasies…

And because these are low profile political personalities, the fate of Turkey’s membership maynot too affected, which is already negatively affected… And of course, I continue to lose my respect towards EU decision making processes.  You keep continue to negotiate Turkey for membership and you have a president who is against that membership. Turks seems to care less and less ….

Brussels Blog (Financial Times): Van Rompuy-Brit combination would signal EU disunity on Turkey

from Bloggingportal.eu – Today’s posts

The sun is shining in Brussels and the sky has an unseasonably blue, cloudless, late-November-in-Rome quality as European Union leaders make their way here for the summit of summits – the event where they will choose the EU’s first full-tim…