A workshop with international participation was organized recently on “Rethinking Turkey’s Role in the Balkans”, by the International Strategic Research Organization (USAK) with the cooperation of the British Institute in Ankara. As it is to be observed currently that the European Union has established its eastern borders of the Balkans, leaving Turkey outside, every activity and event reviewing Turkey’s close relations with the Balkans is a welcome and attention drawing development. Therefore, Center for Eurasian Studies (AVIM) owes a debt of gratitude to all those who have contributed to the realization of this event.
One major observation regarding the handling of the issue in the workshop is that rather than addressing Turkey as a Balkan country, the starting point of the forum was to survey the future of the relations of Turkey, having undeniable, deeply rooted ties in the Balkans, with the Balkan countries. This approach has nevertheless been beneficial in providing clues to the Balkans and Turkey from the EU’s general perspective. An element of distortion inevitably reveals itself in this perspective when addressing the natural close relations of Turkey with the Balkan countries, whose ingrained ties cannot be ignored on the one side while the adopted policy of the EU, the centripetal attraction for the Balkans, is to keep her outside.
As a result of such an approach, Turkey’s interest in the Balkans can be taken outside the context of being a country of the region and thus can be linked to goals of intervening in the region as an external power. In this mindset, rather than assessing Turkey’s likely contributions to the Southeast European Cooperation Process (SEECP) which Turkey has always promoted and tried to develop, concern can be voiced of the intention to draw the Balkan countries to its orbit through its developing economic power. Likewise, when its belonging to the Balkans is ignored, the concern could be voiced that the activities of the Turkish Investment and Coordination Agency (TIKA) and the Directorate of Religious Affairs are to try to assume the patronage of the Balkan Muslims and Turkey to use its soft power for political ambitions.
However, as personally expressed by the Deputy Foreign Minister in the meeting, when approaching the issue from the aspect of history, geography, political facts, cultural connections, economic difficulties and the millions of Turks living in the Balkans, Turkey is indispensably a Balkan country and cannot have any other choice but to pursue an active policy towards the region.
It is a mistake to try to detach Turkey from the Balkans. It is a loss for Turkey, for the Balkan countries, for the European Union. At a time when the political and economic gravity of global relations shifts towards the east, to the continent of Asia, when considering the potential of contribution of Turkey to the region and to the European Union, located at the nexus of Eurasia and apart from Russia, providing the only geographical and physical Asian connection for the EU, this mistake becomes all the more clear and it also becomes more difficult to explain the persistence on this mistake in terms of rational thinking.
© 2009-2024 Center for Eurasian Studies (AVİM) All Rights Reserved
No comments yet.
-
THE NEW SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE USA
Alev KILIÇ 31.01.2013 -
ENTICEMENT TO TERRORISM
Alev KILIÇ 31.07.2013 -
CASPIAN SEA NATURAL GAS PIPELINE ITENARY DECIDED
Alev KILIÇ 30.06.2013 -
THE NECESSITY TO OPEN THE ARCHIVES AND ESTABLISH A JOINT COMMISSION OF HISTORIANS AND EXPERTS HAVE COME TO THE FORE ONCE AGAIN
Alev KILIÇ 20.12.2012 -
EU SUMMIT: COMPROMISE DEAL ON EUROZONE BANK SUPERVISOR
Alev KILIÇ 19.10.2012
-
LETTER BY ATTORNEY BRUCE FEIN IN THE INTEREST OF HISTORICAL AND LEGAL TRUTH
AVİM 24.05.2023 -
EXCERPTS FROM JEREMY SALT’S BOOK REVIEW TITLED “A LAWYER’S BLUNDERING FORAY INTO HISTORY” IN THE LATEST ISSUE OF THE REVIEW OF ARMENIAN STUDIES
AVİM 15.04.2015 -
ARMENIA ON IRAN’S PATH TO THE GULF
Ali Murat TAŞKENT 12.06.2017 -
ARMENIA 2013 (3)
Ömer Engin LÜTEM 08.01.2013 -
HOW IS THE ARMENIAN DIASPORA INFLUENCED
Alev KILIÇ 06.05.2013
-
Türk-Ermeni İlişkileri Üzerine Ömer Engin Lütem Konferansları 2023 -
Türk-Ermeni İlişkileri Üzerine Ömer Engin Lütem Konferansları 2022 -
RADİKAL ERMENİ UNSURLARCA GERÇEKLEŞTİRİLEN MEZALİMLER VE VANDALİZM -
PATRIOTISM PERVERTED -
MEN ARE LIKE THAT -
BAKÜ-TİFLİS-CEYHAN BORU HATTININ YAŞANAN TARİHİ -
INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARS ON THE EVENTS OF 1915 -
FAKE PHOTOS AND THE ARMENIAN PROPAGANDA -
ERMENİ PROPAGANDASI VE SAHTE RESİMLER -
Türk-Ermeni İlişkileri Üzerine Ömer Engin Lütem Konferansları 2021 -
A Letter From Japan - Strategically Mum: The Silence of the Armenians -
Japonya'dan Bir Mektup - Stratejik Suskunluk: Ermenilerin Sessizliği -
Türk-Ermeni Uyuşmazlığı Üzerine Ömer Engin Lütem Konferansları 2020 -
Anastas Mikoyan: Confessions of an Armenian Bolshevik -
Sovyet Sonrası Ukrayna’da Devlet, Toplum ve Siyaset - Değişen Dinamikler, Dönüşen Kimlikler -
Türk-Ermeni Uyuşmazlığı Üzerine Ömer Engin Lütem Konferansları 2019 -
Türk-Ermeni Uyuşmazlığı Üzerine Ömer Engin Lütem Konferansları 2018 -
Ermeni Sorunuyla İlgili İngiliz Belgeleri (1912-1923) - British Documents on Armenian Question (1912-1923) -
Turkish-Russian Academics: A Historical Study on the Caucasus -
Gürcistan'daki Müslüman Topluluklar: Azınlık Hakları, Kimlik, Siyaset -
Armenian Diaspora: Diaspora, State and the Imagination of the Republic of Armenia -
Ermeni Sorunu Temel Bilgi ve Belgeler (2. Baskı)
-
CONFERENCE TITLED “HUNGARY’S PERSPECTIVES ON THE TURKIC WORLD"