3. Turkey is located between Europe and Asia, so this country has a variety of cultures. Now, Turkey is in the complicated situation in terms of political problems, economic situation and so on. What I'm talking about is that world regions are getting complicated. ----------------------
Turkey faces diplomatic balancing act
ANKARA, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Turkey faces a delicate diplomatic balancing act between its old and new partners after reaching out to countries beyond its traditional Western allies and strengthening its status as a regional power
By Ibon Villelabeitia
ANKARA, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Turkey faces a delicate diplomatic balancing act between its old and new partners after reaching out to countries beyond its traditional Western allies and strengthening its status as a regional power.
Turkey, a NATO member which hopes to join the European Union, has in recent years built diplomatic and commercial ties with Central Asia, Iran, Russia, the Caucasus and the Middle East and may soon win a non-permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.
It has no natural resources of its own, but has positioned itself as an energy hub for Caspian and Central Asian oil and gas exports transiting to Western markets.
Since the end of the Cold War, Ankara has had the luxury of not having to choose between its Western and Eurasian interests. But it could now face some hard choices between its traditional allies and new, less predictable partners.
This has been highlighted by the standoff between the West and Iran over Tehran's nuclear programme and by tensions between Moscow and the West over Russia's brief war with Georgia.
"Turkey can't be all things for all the people all the time," said Fadi Hakura, a researcher at London's Chatham House.
"Turkey's multilateral engagement will force it to make priorities. If there's a conflict between Russia and the United States, what side is Turkey going to take?" Hakura said.
COLD WAR BULWARK
Turkey, a member of NATO since the 1950s, was the alliance's bulwark against Soviet expansion during the Cold War.
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, it has diversified its foreign policy, looking eastward and forging closer ties with neighbours such as Syria.
This has created strains with Washington, which accuses Damascus of supporting international terrorism.
The Islamist-rooted AK Party, which swept to power in 2002 has cemented ties with the Middle East, rediscovering a region which it was an integral part of under the Ottoman Turks.
Turkey is now mediating talks between Israel and Syria. It also hosted a meeting of Caribbean nations and a summit of African leaders this summer, events linked to its desire to win a Security Council seat.
"Turkey wants to leave its diplomatic footprint and become a regional player," said Hugh Pope, an author on Turkey and an analyst for the International Crisis Group.
"It is a question of prestige and it has brought peace with its neighbours but Turkey will have to soft-pedal on its foreign policy if it wins a seat at the United Nations."
Turkey has also offered to try to help resolve the dispute between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear programme, which the West says is aimed at developing atomic weapons.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who says the programme is intended entirely for civilian purposes, travelled to Istanbul last month on his first visit to a NATO country.
But Ankara would face a difficult choice if it had to vote at the Security Council on whether to impose more sanctions on Tehran for failing to comply with the United Nations' demands over its nuclear programme.
Ankara does not want Iran to have nuclear arms, but has trade and energy ties with Tehran which could be damaged by any further sanctions. How it votes on such issues could also affect it ability to mediate.
CHALLENGE FOR THE WEST
Russia's military intervention in Georgia highlighted just how hard the diplomatic balancing act could be for Turkey.
A close U.S. ally with good ties with neighbouring Georgia, Ankara depends heavily on Russian energy imports but incurred Moscow's wrath by letting NATO ships sail through the Bosphorus Strait into the Black Sea during the conflict.
Ian Lesser, a researcher at the German Marshall Fund think-tank, said Turkey's ambivalence in the Caucasus conflict could be a harbinger of transatlantic disputes to come amid growing competition between NATO and Russia.
"As relations with Washington and Brussels have cooled, some Turkish strategists have even begun to consider the possibility of alternative strategic alignments in Eurasia, and above all with Russia," Lesser wrote in a recent paper.
Alarmed by Moscow's war with Tbilisi, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan embarked on shuttle diplomacy in the Caucasus.
President Abdullah Gul also visited Armenia for a soccer match in an effort to reduce almost a century of hostilities between the two countries with no diplomatic ties.
Turkey's increasingly independent and assertive foreign policy could present a challenge for the West if it were no longer able to expect Turkey to toe the line on its foreign policy, Pope said.
Despite slow progress, Turkey says joining the 27-state EU remains its main foreign policy objective and has vowed to carry out reforms to bolster its flagging entry bid.
But political analysts say Ankara's diplomacy of breadth rather than depth could distract it from its EU membership drive.
"It would be a mistake for Ankara to see its successful foreign policy as a substitute for the EU," Hakura said.
"It's Turkey's EU candidacy status that has made it attractive to many countries in the first place to establish ties."
3. It was tough to understand because I don't have much idea about middle asia. So I'm not sure that I understand this article rightly(what reporter mean to say). Anyway, I think this unique situation comes because of complication(cutural,political..).
------------------- Black Widow's inhospitable beauty
By John Simpson BBC News, Tora Bora, Afghanistan
Among the coalition's first targets in 2001 were the mountains of Tora Bora
The immense border between Afghanistan and the north-west frontier of Pakistan is harsh, inhospitable and breathtakingly beautiful.
It has been the cause of tension for at least a century and a half.
As "the Durand Line", the border was imposed on the Afghans by Britain in 1893. Even now, Afghanistan refuses to agree to it in principle, although, in practice, it is accepted.
Looking down from the Afghan side at Torkhum towards the Khyber Pass which leads into Pakistan, you can understand why stopping the movement of guerrillas and weapons across the border is so hard.
The road from the Khyber is the main trade route into Afghanistan, and is choked day and night with lorries packed high with Pakistani goods.
The border police on both sides try their best to check that guns and explosives are not hidden under the tons of onions or rice or electrical goods, but the job is an impossible one.
As we left the Black Widow's shadow there was no ambush - maybe the fact that we had an escort of 80 well-trained policemen had something to do with it
In Kabul, I interviewed a would-be suicide bomber from Pakistan who had given himself up when he realised his controllers had lied to him.
I asked if police had examined the lorry which he drove across the border laden with explosives. He shook his head.
The road from Kabul to Jalalabad and on to Torkhum is becoming more and more dangerous.
Landmine threat
A year ago, when my team and I travelled along it, the police gave us an escort of a jeep containing four armed men.
This time we had eight jeeps and 48 armed men.
And when, a couple of days later, we drove southwards out of Jalalabad to the Tora Bora mountains, close to the Pakistani border, the Afghan authorities insisted on giving us a 14 vehicle escort.
On the dirt roads and mountain tracks which lead to Tora Bora, the biggest threat is landmines.
The Taleban who operate here cannot have failed to see our convoy, and would have guessed that we had to return this way. It would have been simple to lay mines in our path during the night.
Tora Bora means the black widow. It lies in the shadow of the Spin Garh (white-headed) range, which is covered with snow all year round.
The sight is breathtaking - fierce, brooding and impenetrable except on foot.
The Afghan border police have a hilltop position looking up at Tora Bora.
At the mountain's foot lies a narrow valley leading to the famous caves where Osama bin Laden hid, and eventually escaped from, in 2002.
Could we go there, I asked the police commander? No, he said, they were in no-man's land.
The Taleban, who have been forced out of the caves twice by coalition and Afghan troops, have now established themselves back there again.
From time to time the police fire heavy machine-guns and mortars across at Tora Bora, to assert their presence.
There was no return fire; the Taleban are too wary for that.
Ambush fears
During the night, as we slept under the stars, the police were vigilant. Occasionally, they called out softly to one another to show they were still there, and that their throats had not been cut by marauders.
Yet the base is easily infiltrated. At one point after dark a fully-grown wolf loped across the open space in front of us.
In the morning the commander decided we should return by a different route - until he was told that an American convoy had been ambushed there nine days ago.
It was plain he was pretty anxious.
Then he and his men consulted their maps. By driving along a couple of dry river-beds we could curve round and join the main Jalalabad road after three hours' hard driving across country.
It worked. As we left the Black Widow's shadow there was no ambush.
Maybe the fact that we had an escort of 80 well-trained policemen, all armed with AK-47 assault rifles, had something to do with it.
A very down to earth* kind of guy. I'm an environmental sociologist interested in establishing material and organizational sustainability worldwide. I'm always looking for interesting materials/technologies, inspiring ideas, or institutional examples of sustainability to inspire others to recognize their choices now. To be fatalistic about an unsustainable world is a sign of a captive mind, given all our options.
*(If "earth" is defined in a planetary sense, concerning comparative historical knowledge and interest in the past 10,000 years or so anywhere...) See both blogs.
2 comments:
1. Sukyung Kim
2. Turkey faces diplomatic balancing act
3. Turkey is located between Europe and Asia, so this country has a variety of cultures. Now, Turkey is in the complicated situation in terms of political problems, economic situation and so on. What I'm talking about is that world regions are getting complicated.
----------------------
Turkey faces diplomatic balancing act
ANKARA, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Turkey faces a delicate diplomatic balancing act between its old and new partners after reaching out to countries beyond its traditional Western allies and strengthening its status as a regional power
By Ibon Villelabeitia
ANKARA, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Turkey faces a delicate diplomatic balancing act between its old and new partners after reaching out to countries beyond its traditional Western allies and strengthening its status as a regional power.
Turkey, a NATO member which hopes to join the European Union, has in recent years built diplomatic and commercial ties with Central Asia, Iran, Russia, the Caucasus and the Middle East and may soon win a non-permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.
It has no natural resources of its own, but has positioned itself as an energy hub for Caspian and Central Asian oil and gas exports transiting to Western markets.
Since the end of the Cold War, Ankara has had the luxury of not having to choose between its Western and Eurasian interests. But it could now face some hard choices between its traditional allies and new, less predictable partners.
This has been highlighted by the standoff between the West and Iran over Tehran's nuclear programme and by tensions between Moscow and the West over Russia's brief war with Georgia.
"Turkey can't be all things for all the people all the time," said Fadi Hakura, a researcher at London's Chatham House.
"Turkey's multilateral engagement will force it to make priorities. If there's a conflict between Russia and the United States, what side is Turkey going to take?" Hakura said.
COLD WAR BULWARK
Turkey, a member of NATO since the 1950s, was the alliance's bulwark against Soviet expansion during the Cold War.
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, it has diversified its foreign policy, looking eastward and forging closer ties with neighbours such as Syria.
This has created strains with Washington, which accuses Damascus of supporting international terrorism.
The Islamist-rooted AK Party, which swept to power in 2002 has cemented ties with the Middle East, rediscovering a region which it was an integral part of under the Ottoman Turks.
Turkey is now mediating talks between Israel and Syria. It also hosted a meeting of Caribbean nations and a summit of African leaders this summer, events linked to its desire to win a Security Council seat.
"Turkey wants to leave its diplomatic footprint and become a regional player," said Hugh Pope, an author on Turkey and an analyst for the International Crisis Group.
"It is a question of prestige and it has brought peace with its neighbours but Turkey will have to soft-pedal on its foreign policy if it wins a seat at the United Nations."
Turkey has also offered to try to help resolve the dispute between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear programme, which the West says is aimed at developing atomic weapons.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who says the programme is intended entirely for civilian purposes, travelled to Istanbul last month on his first visit to a NATO country.
But Ankara would face a difficult choice if it had to vote at the Security Council on whether to impose more sanctions on Tehran for failing to comply with the United Nations' demands over its nuclear programme.
Ankara does not want Iran to have nuclear arms, but has trade and energy ties with Tehran which could be damaged by any further sanctions. How it votes on such issues could also affect it ability to mediate.
CHALLENGE FOR THE WEST
Russia's military intervention in Georgia highlighted just how hard the diplomatic balancing act could be for Turkey.
A close U.S. ally with good ties with neighbouring Georgia, Ankara depends heavily on Russian energy imports but incurred Moscow's wrath by letting NATO ships sail through the Bosphorus Strait into the Black Sea during the conflict.
Ian Lesser, a researcher at the German Marshall Fund think-tank, said Turkey's ambivalence in the Caucasus conflict could be a harbinger of transatlantic disputes to come amid growing competition between NATO and Russia.
"As relations with Washington and Brussels have cooled, some Turkish strategists have even begun to consider the possibility of alternative strategic alignments in Eurasia, and above all with Russia," Lesser wrote in a recent paper.
Alarmed by Moscow's war with Tbilisi, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan embarked on shuttle diplomacy in the Caucasus.
President Abdullah Gul also visited Armenia for a soccer match in an effort to reduce almost a century of hostilities between the two countries with no diplomatic ties.
Turkey's increasingly independent and assertive foreign policy could present a challenge for the West if it were no longer able to expect Turkey to toe the line on its foreign policy, Pope said.
Despite slow progress, Turkey says joining the 27-state EU remains its main foreign policy objective and has vowed to carry out reforms to bolster its flagging entry bid.
But political analysts say Ankara's diplomacy of breadth rather than depth could distract it from its EU membership drive.
"It would be a mistake for Ankara to see its successful foreign policy as a substitute for the EU," Hakura said.
"It's Turkey's EU candidacy status that has made it attractive to many countries in the first place to establish ties."
---
http://www.kyivpost.com/world/29808
1. Park sojung
2. Black Widow's inhospitable beauty
3. It was tough to understand because I don't have much idea about middle asia. So I'm not sure that I understand this article rightly(what reporter mean to say).
Anyway, I think this unique situation comes because of complication(cutural,political..).
-------------------
Black Widow's inhospitable beauty
By John Simpson
BBC News, Tora Bora, Afghanistan
Among the coalition's first targets in 2001 were the mountains of Tora Bora
The immense border between Afghanistan and the north-west frontier of Pakistan is harsh, inhospitable and breathtakingly beautiful.
It has been the cause of tension for at least a century and a half.
As "the Durand Line", the border was imposed on the Afghans by Britain in 1893. Even now, Afghanistan refuses to agree to it in principle, although, in practice, it is accepted.
Looking down from the Afghan side at Torkhum towards the Khyber Pass which leads into Pakistan, you can understand why stopping the movement of guerrillas and weapons across the border is so hard.
The road from the Khyber is the main trade route into Afghanistan, and is choked day and night with lorries packed high with Pakistani goods.
The border police on both sides try their best to check that guns and explosives are not hidden under the tons of onions or rice or electrical goods, but the job is an impossible one.
As we left the Black Widow's shadow there was no ambush - maybe the fact that we had an escort of 80 well-trained policemen had something to do with it
In Kabul, I interviewed a would-be suicide bomber from Pakistan who had given himself up when he realised his controllers had lied to him.
I asked if police had examined the lorry which he drove across the border laden with explosives. He shook his head.
The road from Kabul to Jalalabad and on to Torkhum is becoming more and more dangerous.
Landmine threat
A year ago, when my team and I travelled along it, the police gave us an escort of a jeep containing four armed men.
This time we had eight jeeps and 48 armed men.
And when, a couple of days later, we drove southwards out of Jalalabad to the Tora Bora mountains, close to the Pakistani border, the Afghan authorities insisted on giving us a 14 vehicle escort.
On the dirt roads and mountain tracks which lead to Tora Bora, the biggest threat is landmines.
The Taleban who operate here cannot have failed to see our convoy, and would have guessed that we had to return this way. It would have been simple to lay mines in our path during the night.
Tora Bora means the black widow. It lies in the shadow of the Spin Garh (white-headed) range, which is covered with snow all year round.
The sight is breathtaking - fierce, brooding and impenetrable except on foot.
The Afghan border police have a hilltop position looking up at Tora Bora.
At the mountain's foot lies a narrow valley leading to the famous caves where Osama bin Laden hid, and eventually escaped from, in 2002.
Could we go there, I asked the police commander? No, he said, they were in no-man's land.
The Taleban, who have been forced out of the caves twice by coalition and Afghan troops, have now established themselves back there again.
From time to time the police fire heavy machine-guns and mortars across at Tora Bora, to assert their presence.
There was no return fire; the Taleban are too wary for that.
Ambush fears
During the night, as we slept under the stars, the police were vigilant. Occasionally, they called out softly to one another to show they were still there, and that their throats had not been cut by marauders.
Yet the base is easily infiltrated. At one point after dark a fully-grown wolf loped across the open space in front of us.
In the morning the commander decided we should return by a different route - until he was told that an American convoy had been ambushed there nine days ago.
It was plain he was pretty anxious.
Then he and his men consulted their maps. By driving along a couple of dry river-beds we could curve round and join the main Jalalabad road after three hours' hard driving across country.
It worked. As we left the Black Widow's shadow there was no ambush.
Maybe the fact that we had an escort of 80 well-trained policemen, all armed with AK-47 assault rifles, had something to do with it.
-------
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7639752.stm
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