East expert Prof. Dr. Udo Steinbach:
Turkey is caught in a political crisis
Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said on EU membership for Turkey: "Turkey is entitled to fair negotiations and a reliable negotiating partner." He speaks not of full membership in the EU. Germany is really a Turkish accession to the EU? What interests are pursued here?
Steinbach: The CDU, the CSU is also clearly against full Turkish membership of the EU and still holds At the privileged partnership established. The FDP, however, tends, and that Mr. Westerwelle also expressed initially negotiate even further and to deliver on the contracts. According Westerwelle done this "open-ended", ie if the negotiations go positive, then Turkey has the prospect of full membership. The course he can say is currently on his visit to Ankara not so much because it is not in the coalition protocol. I got the impression that Mr Westerwelle in regard to Turkey, also thinks very highly of strategic and that he therefore fully tends to accept full membership.
Come is restricted by the black-yellow coalition conflicts, especially with the CSU?
Steinbach: Certainly. This will in the coming weeks over the government continues to be a big issue. The CSU has said yes straight at their meeting in Torrent Kreuth that Turkey should in no way be a full member and has even tried, the Foreign Secretary here to dictate a line of travel. He should not make any secret agreements. The CSU would not have to sweep up behind the pieces. So there will come to sharper confrontations within the coalition itself.
Why are ongoing since 2005, accession negotiations by the European Union with Turkey so far been slow?
Steinbach: This has a number of reasons. Point 1: First, the trial was optimism, the enthusiasm to lead these negotiations unless it is already very strong. Item 2: Turkey is caught in a political crisis, as we know. There were clashes with the military, with the Constitutional Court. All these things have distracted the attention of the Prime Minister also by the reforms, so that there is actually a stagnation occurred even on the Turkish side. And as long as it is not preceded by the Turkish side, including the European Union has seen no reason their part to move on. Moreover, and this is the third point, the Cyprus issue. The fact that the Turkish government just accepting the fact that Cyprus is part of the Free Trade Agreement, which means that land Cypriot planes and ships into Turkish ports and airports in Turkey can. It all comes together and it explains why the negotiations have proceeded with no high speed. But we must note that they move forward anyway and that this year several chapters of the accession negotiations be opened.
Why does not the Kurds, but the Cyprus issue as a "key" for EU accession negotiations called?
Steinbach: The Kurdish question is seen in the European Union as a political problem for Turkey, but the EU is doing at the moment very difficult to get involved here. On the one hand there is the Prime Minister Erdogan: The Foreign Minister has even praised him for his efforts to explicitly promote democracy. But this is only one side. On the other hand we have the Constitutional Court, which has banned the Kurdish party, DTP. Here, the European Union is of course very difficult, but imposes on the observance of the rule of law. The EU is not in the Kurdish question had very strong because these Kurdish Very controversial issue in Turkey, because it is controversial, and we must say that the Prime Minister has just tried in recent months, very significant steps, at least. The Cyprus issue, however, is a purely legal question. Since there are very clear guidelines. Cyprus since 2004 Member of the European Union and therefore has a right to be a member of the free trade zone and by contrast, the Turkish government. It is much easier for the EU to play the card as Cyprus, the Kurdish card that is extremely complicated and internally extremely controversial in Turkey at the moment.
They say Turkey is in regional conflicts because of their bridge as an important mediator between Europe and the Middle East? How do you rate this?
Steinbach: So I appreciate that very highly. I believe that Turkey, especially among Davudoglu, the new Foreign Minister, very significant steps have been taken to contribute to stabilizing the environment in the Middle East and the Caucasus. I think this is extremely important and which has of course the Federal Foreign Minister acknowledged in his interview in Ankara. And I think this is a very important argument to strengthen the belief in Europe that Turkey is an important country that is at the end of the European Union.
Turkey aspires to be a regional power in the Middle East. It attempts to forge links with Iran, Iraq and Syria, new alliances and is also strongly against the political and national rights of the Kurds. If these power structures that are aimed against Israel, with the foreign policy of the EU and U.S. compatible?
Steinbach: This is certainly not to say a few sentences. On the one hand it is true that Turkey is trying to play the role of a bridge, a strong regional power. What the Kurdish policy in the interior is concerned, of course, the whole thing is not so much as it should be. We should not ignore the fact that Mr Erdogan has tried in recent months, major initiatives, at least. But the Kurds know better than me, that there has been a considerable resistance against these attempts very different forces, and this resistance led first of all to have the DTP was banned. If we now come to Israel, I must say that the attitude of Turkish policy, is an attitude that seeks to make international law and humanity to the fore. Of course it is possible that this conflicts with European policy. But I am personally on the Turkish side and say: As long as things are in Gaza, as they are, Turkey can make no relations with Israel. And as long as Israel is a country that violates international law, there must be forces, there must be governments that also call by name. And if that is not the European Union does, I think that's at least worth noting that the government does.
What is the role of the nuclear dispute with Iran to the Turkish-European relations? Is there evidence that Turkey also aspires to become a nuclear power?
Steinbach is This evidence does not yet exist. Unless I had something to read or hear. But at the moment which of course is still in the room is a possible Turkish Mediator. It's still the proposal in the room that may be passed on part of the nuclear fuel from Iran to Turkey and on Turkey for further processing. So Turkey is at least still talking as a partner of potentially could de-escalate the conflict.
This March's national elections in Iraq are held. The Kurds insist that Kirkuk is part of Kurdistan, but the Arabs and the neighbors see this as a "Kurdish threat".
As you can see the future of this problem?
is facing a civil war?
What is the role of U.S. in this context?
Steinbach: If the Kurds continue to insist that Kirkuk will be part of the Kurdish federal state, then the next conflict is inevitable. No Arab, and of course no neighbor will accept that Kirkuk is part of the Kurdish part of Iraq. Since a very great danger for the existence of the confederal or federal unit of Kurdistan, if the Kurds in Iraq to withdraw their claims, they will be dealt with sooner or later on the losing side. I believe that they have now achieved a lot, but to achieve even more, they have to play very cautiously. You must submit claims very carefully controlled and they have to look very carefully how far they can go. Not only in relation to the government in Baghdad but also in relation to the governments in Ankara and Tehran. The Americans of course have a vested interest in the region. But the Americans who currently have very close relations with the Kurdish administration in Iraq, will, if the Kurds take over their cards on the Kurdish side can not play.
Munich, 08.01.2010
by Resad Özkan
East expert Prof. Dr. Udo Steinbach:
"Turkey has fallen into a state crisis"
Kurdish version read
Prof. Dr. Udo Steinbach:
Tirkiye Ketiye Krizek Siyasi
www.rudaw.net
............. ...............
Udo Steinbach
Born raised in 1943 in Pethau / Zittau, in Cunewalde at Bautzen and Dusseldorf
1963-1965 military service
reserve training in the attaché-reserve, most recently as Colonel dR at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Almaty (Kazakhstan)
study of Islamic studies (ie study of the languages, history, religion and cultural and literary history of the Arab Islamic world, Persian and Turkish), and classical philology at the Universities of Freiburg i.Br. and Basel, 1965-1970
PhD in 1970 with Professor Dr. Hans-Robert Roemer, Freiburg iB
Title of Work: Dhat al-Himma - Cultural and Historical studies of an Arab nation novel
(published in Wiesbaden: Verlag Franz Steiner, 1973 )
1971-1974 Head of the Middle East Unit at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP, think-tank of the government) then layer near Munich
head of the Turkish editor of Deutsche Welle 1975
director of the German Orient Institute, Hamburg, 1976 to 2006
Since 1991 Honorary Professor an der Universität Hamburg
Direktor des GIGA-Instituts für Nahoststudien 2007,
Pensionierung seit 1.1.2008
Gegenwärtig: Lehre am Centrum für Nah- und Mittelost-Studien an der Philipps-Universität Marburg
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