EUROPE STRATEGY IN FAVOR OF TURKEY

EU Foreign Policy Chief and Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union Javier Solana talked about, the so called, Turkish issues in his two interviews given in the previous weeks. In one of his interviews Solana has reminded about the Armenian-Turkish relations. To the reporter’s question from Turkish “Today’s Zaman” whether the resolutions adopted by the EU member countries’ National Parliaments could contribute to the regulation of Armenian-Turkish relations, Mr. Solana answered: “I believe that history is a history. I don’t think that it should be everyday put on the table. The historians should study the history. And the relations between the countries, in this particular case between Armenia and Turkey should be recovered and restarted.” Attention! Mr. Solana has announced neither genocide nor something reminding it. But the Turkish and Azerbaijani mass media shout that Javier Solan is against the recognition of Armenian Genocide. Of course, Mr. Solana’s statement regarding “leaving the history to the historians” is full of concerns as it repeats the position of the official Ankara. Some other evaluations made by Mr. Solana prove his Turkish orientation. In the same interview quoted above, Javier Solana ensured that irrespective of the incident between the Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the President of Israel Shimon Peres, the role of the Turkey has not been reduced in the region. Even more, Mr. Solana sent a “message” by a Turkish paper to the Israel Government stressing that he has some problems with them. Another German paper “Hamburger Abendsblatt” published an interview given by Javier Solana.

Regarding the Turkey’s participation to the European Union Mr. Solana said: “Turkey is a candidate to the EU membership and it has been agreed among the EU members. Negotiations on certain points are being conducted. I see no obstacles for Turkey to join the EU.” It’s impossible to leave out Solana’s pro-Turkish view points. What’s the reason to it? Probably, the decisions made in G20 and NATO summits have some answers. It is quite natural that due to its size, geographical position, economic and political significances Turkey is important for Europe. It is a special corridor and a buffer also. Let’s think: energy security in European security has no sense without Turkey’s participation. It is enough to throw a glaze on the map to see that the only way to pass Russia and join Europe to the energy sources is Turkey. Due to Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute, cold Europe thought of doing favor to Turkey. Second: Turkey occupies the geographical territory to join Europe with Near and Middle East. It is already announced that American troops should leave the territory of Iraq soon. And the West is ready to carry out stabilization functions in Iraq. Of course, Turkey which has a great interest in Kurdish deal and has much practice will be a part of it. So Turkish-European ties are powerful enough. But Turkey wants more – membership to European Union.

Europe is against it but they prefer not to touch upon it. The reasons are obvious – civilization unity is the basis of European integration, and Turkey has nothing to do with it. Regarding Solana’s statement to leave history to historians we would like to remind that history is not a matter of fact of the historians only. We are sure that the EU Chairman is aware that current European Community has the impact of history and its lessons.