Politics & Economics Bulletin
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PPoolliittiiccss && EEccoonnoommiiccss BBuulllleettiinn ► 11.03.2016 Turkish PM asks for opposition support for visa liberalization Hurriyet Daily News, 10.03.2016 Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has called on the country’s opposition parties to help adopt the legal arrangements required for visa liberalization for Turkish citizens in the European Union. “Inshallah [God willing], visa exemption will be provided in June. I want to make a call to the opposition leaders from here; we need to get legal arrangements adopted by parliament by May 1 so that processes within the European Union will also be completed by June. We need the opposition’s support. We, at least, need them to not cut our water off,” Davutoğlu said late. “We would pass these [arrangements] with 317 votes anyhow but let them not obstruct it,” he said, referring to the fact that his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) holds a majority of the 550- seated national assembly with 317 deputies. “Let them not block parliament with an obstructive stance and let’s pass these laws. This is a 50-60- year-old dream. We will make it real for our citizens,” he said, while delivering a speech at a reception hosted by the International Investors Association of Turkey (YASED). At a special summit on the migration crisis held in Brussels, the Turkish government and the EU agreed on a deal due to be finalized on March 17-18 which would see Turkey take back all illegal migrants landing in Greece. Ankara proposed an arrangement under which the EU would legally resettle one Syrian refugee from camps in Turkey in exchange for every illegal Syrian that Turkey takes from Greece, in a bid to reduce the incentive for people to board boats for Europe. In return though, Turkey wants billions of euros in aid, visa-free access to Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone and a speeding up of Ankara’s efforts to join the EU. Arab League postpones decision on closing office in Turkey Hurriyet Daily News, 11.03.2016 In a bid to avert contested outcomes amid regional disputes, the Arab League has eventually decided to postpone its review of a sub-committee decision to close its office in the Turkish capital Ankara, along with seven other representative offices around the world. The foreign ministers of Arab League states were originally set to review a committee-level decision made in Cairo to close the offices for “financial and administrative purposes” and make a final decision. The committee that made the decision is composed of the permanent ambassadors of the 22-member Arab League at the headquarters in Cairo. The committee was designed by the Council of Foreign Ministers in September 2015 in order to review the performance of its missions abroad with a view to restructuring the Arab League. However, the ministers delayed the review of the decision to March 11, citing the committee’s “hectic agenda.” During the session, the foreign ministers elected Ahmed Abul Gheit, who served as Egypt’s last foreign minister under Hosni Mubarak until the longtime autocrat’s overthrow in 2011, as the body’s incoming secretary-general. Eventually the Council of Foreign Ministers decided to postpone the decision until their biannual meeting in September 2016, Ambassador Mohamed El Fatah Naciri, the head of the mission of the League of Arab States (AL) in Ankara, told the Hürriyet Daily News. Naciri also said a new committee had been formed by the Council “in order to study this question” until September 2016. Speaking before the Council’s decision, Naciri said he did not expect the foreign ministers to approve the committee-level decision given the “huge political consequences” of such a decision. “The committee decision was made as they were trying to look at just financial and administrative purposes, so it is not decided yet. Now if such a decision is approved, I think it will be a political decision because of its consequences. Such a decision would have a really huge impact,” Naciri said. “It is not only Turkey. We are also talking about other missions. If it was only about closing the Ankara office, it would be assumed that there is something wrong with Turkey. But it should not be explained politically. This was financial and administrative,” he added, while admitting that a possible approval would have a “political meaning and consequences.” In addition to the office in Turkey, the committee also proposed closing down representative offices in Berlin, Brasilia, Buenos Aires, Pretoria, Madrid, New Delhi and Malta. The AL mission in Ankara was inaugurated in January 2010. In return, the Turkish Embassy in Cairo has been accredited to the AL since April 2010. But since November 2013, when Egypt expelled Turkey’s ambassador to Cairo amid tension between the two countries, Turkey has not appointed a new ambassador to Cairo. Relations between Ankara and the AL have been particularly tense since the foreign ministers of the AL condemned Turkey’s military presence in Iraq and called on Turkey to withdraw its troops from the country in late December 2015. In an interview with Al Jazeera late in February, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu touched upon the controversy over Bashiqa, a camp in northern Iraq that recently became a source of tension between Ankara and Baghdad when the Iraqi government asked Turkey to withdraw 150 troops it had deployed in the region late last year in order to train an Iraqi militia to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). “We sent military trainers and some troops to defend them in order to liberate Mosul. We sent them to Bashiqa and the Arab League has condemned Turkey,” Davutoğlu said, referring to the Arab League decision to condemn Turkey’s deployment of troops as an “assault” on Iraqi sovereignty on Dec. 24, 2015. EU Minister: Turkey won’t take back migrants already on Greek islands Anadolu Agency, 10.03.2016 Turkish EU Minister Volkan Bozkır has stressed the readmission deal with the union will not apply to refugees who have already made their way to Greece’s islands. Turkey will only begin to readmit refugees from Greece once those who are already in EU territory are resettled among European countries, Bozkır told. “There is an odd perception regarding the readmission agreement as if they will send one million people back to Turkey. Something them like this is out of question,” he said. “Whoever is currently on the Greek islands through irregular migration, they are definitely not part of this deal,” he added. “It would be more accurate to say the number of migrants to be returned to Turkey in the event of a readmission agreement with the EU will be in the thousands or tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands or millions.” Officials from Turkey’s Directorate General of Migration Management, their counterparts from Greece and authorities from the European Union’s border agency, Frontex, will start discussions over the issue “from scratch,” Bozkır said. “Then, people who travel through irregular migration will be included in readmission,” he said. He also stressed that EU countries would not be allowed to “cherry pick” during the resettlement process by preferring engineers or doctors over less qualified applicants, because the U.N. Refugee Agency will be overseeing the process. Bozkır said Ankara would meet all its obligations under the deal by May 1 and called on all opposition parties to support this “historic” step. “We believe this to be a historic step, a gift to our nation. We will make this happen with or without the opposition’s support,” he added. Turkey proposed a deal which would see the EU resettle one Syrian refugee from camps in Turkey in exchange for every Syrian that Turkey takes from Greece, in a bid to reduce the incentive for people to board boats for Europe. In return, Turkey wants financial aid, visa-free access to Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone and a speeding up of Ankara’s efforts to join the bloc. EU leaders hope to finalize the deal at a summit on March 17-18. Ukraine: Erdoğan slams ‘unjust’ Russian interventions in Syria Anadolu Agency, 10.03.2016 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has slammed Russia’s “unjust” interventions in Syria and Ukraine while reiterating Turkish support for the latter’s government during a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko, in Ankara. “Russia says it entered Syria upon a call from the Syrian administration. I wonder who asked them to enter Ukraine? How will this fall in line with international law?” Erdoğan asked following the March 8 meeting, suggesting that Russian actions in the region could be summarized as “might makes right.” The Turkish president called for the removal of foreign troops from Ukrainian territory and the re- establishment of control over the country’s border with Russia. In return, Poroshenko expressed his appreciation for Turkish support in the face of the “brutal violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” by Russia. “Turkey is a friend and partner,” he said. The leaders also expressed agreement over the “illegal annexation” of the autonomous region of Crimea in 2014. While Erdoğan told reporters that Russia had been “trampling over international law,” Poroshenko defined the “transformation of Crimea into a military base” as unacceptable. They pledged to act in cooperation in order to end the “temporary invasion” of Crime. Meanwhile, the Turkish president also praised the reforms and the economic renewal process being led by Poroshenko in Ukraine. “A strong Ukraine, which has strengthened its political stability, is also a guarantee for regional peace and order,” he said.