DIŞ POLİTİKA - FOREIGN POLICY A Quarterly of the Foreign Policy Institute Vol. XXV 2000 Nos. 3-4 CONTENTS PAGES Foreword Seyfi Taşhan The Fruitful Legacy Erik Cornell..........................................................................................................4 Turkey’s vision for future should be built on her eventual membership Mükerrem Hiç......................................................................................................7 Copenhagen Criteria – Minorities – Turkey Pulat Tacar .........................................................................................................12 Turkmenistan and Turkey: Establishment and Development of Fraternal Relations Bayram S. Atayev ..............................................................................................17 About Actuality Aspects of Kazakhstan: Turkish Geopolitical Vector Abylkhozhin Juldusbek.....................................................................................20 Russia and Turkey: Horizons of Developing Policy Vladlen Martynov..............................................................................................23 Commonwealth of States Versus Turkey Ayhan Kamel......................................................................................................31 Perspectives for Stability in the Balkans: An Overview Ali Hikmet Alp ...................................................................................................38 The Balkans: Out of the Past Cornel Codita .....................................................................................................49 The Turkish Minority in Bulgaria Ömer Lütem .......................................................................................................62 Turkey and Balkans 1 Trajan Petrovski ................................................................................................65 Croatian Foreign Policy: New Times and New Goals Radovan Vukadinovic .......................................................................................67 Cyprus and the European Union: The Relevant Factors Andrew Mango...................................................................................................78 Turkey and Morocco Mohamed Cherti................................................................................................83 The Genesis and Development of the Nation-State: Some Remarks on the Cases of Spain and Turkey Antonio Elorza ...................................................................................................85 The Mediterranean Clash of Civilizations or Enhanced Cooperation Franchetti Pardo................................................................................................91 International Security – Latin American Perception Hugo Gobbi ........................................................................................................95 China Reşat Arım........................................................................................................100 New Horizons of Turkey’s Foreign Policy and Beyond Arshad-uz Zaman ............................................................................................104 The Future of Turkish – African Relations Numan Hazar ...................................................................................................107 Turkish Foreign Policy in the Year 2000 and Beyond: Her Opening up Policy to Africa Salih Zeki Karaca ............................................................................................115 2 Foreword The year 1999 was the 25th Anniversary of the foundation of the Turkish Foreign Policy Institute. Against the background of a remarkable quarter of a century filled with innumerable conferences, research activity, brain storming sessions, publications, training programs and policy recommendations, we wanted to commemorate the silver anniversary of the Institute with a fairly large international conference that would examine “The New Horizons of Turkish Foreign Policy in the Year 2000 and Beyond”. The conference which was due to be held last year under the patronage of President Süleyman Demirel was postponed to this year because of the catastrophic earthquakes that hit Turkey in August 1999.The actual conference was, therefore, held on 24-25 March this year. In our previous issue we published the presentations made at the inaugural session, which was addressed by President Süleyman Demirel of Turkey, President Rauf Denktaş of TRNC and several distinguished participants from different parts of the world. The conference continued its work in three workshops; namely, “Turkey and Her Allies”, ”Turkey and her Neighborhood”, and “New Horizons of Turkish Foreign Policy”. The participants to the conference also heard Minister of State Şükrü Sina Gürel and Kamran İnan, President of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Turkish Grand National Assembly. Unfortunately we do not have enough space to publish the entire proceedings of the Workshops, which witnessed highly interesting debates. In this volume we only present some of the papers that have been made available. I would like to take this opportunity to express the gratitude of the Foreign Policy Institute to all participants and those who helped the conference to be a successful one. Seyfi Taşhan 3 The Fruitful Legacy Erik Cornell* It can be said that the inheritance of the Ottoman Empire was divided into three parts: the Middle East, the Balkans and, located between them, the Republic of Turkey. At an early stage Atatürk launched the formula "Peace at home, peace abroad" to serve as the guideline for the policy of the young Republic, which contained not least a counsel to avoid the imbroglio of the Middle East. Expressed in more concrete terms it can be paraphrased to mean that what is ours belongs to us and what belongs to others belongs to them. Whilst imperialist ambitions had characterized the Ottoman period the Turkish Republic adopted the more advanced - and in the 1920's much more advanced indeed - attitude of striving for peaceful and stable relations with its neighbors. As a consequence the last three quarters of a century constitute perhaps the longest period in history when the rulers and inhabitants of Anatolia have not been engaged in wars with their neighbors. The adherence to Atatürk's principle became the distinguishing quality for Turkey in contrast to the Balkans and the Middle East as well as from the emerging Caucasian region of unrest, which all have been subject to external aggression as well as internal strife. Of course the Turkish path has also had its ups and downs but in the troubled area in question it stands out as a solitary rock of stability. The continuous adherence to Atatürk's guidelines has resulted in a unique respect for the predictability and reliability of Turkish foreign policy, be it appreciated or not. Now I hear many Turkish friends and colleagues comment that this might well be true, but that it has not led to Turkey receiving any thanks, expressions of appreciation or even compensation when that should have been natural. There exist bitter feelings, expressed in words like "the Turk's only friend is another Turk" or that "the West only courts Turkey when it needs its contribution" - caused by experiences such as the Crimean war, the attitudes of the Central Powers during the First World War, of the lies during the Second World War, the Korean and Gulf wars, whilst negligence or faithlessness quickly has gained the upper hand when the political climate so permitted as proven by the Treaty of Sevres, moments of Cold War detente and the short period between the demise of the Soviet Union and the Gulf War. These points of view are understandable as well as uncontestable. But can one, in the bottom of one's heart, really expect anything else? Already on the personal level we learn at a young age that if we help somebody in distress, we often do not hear from him until he finds himself in trouble again. At the international level this behavior, frankly speaking, reflects the unavoidable conditions of 'Realpolitik'. Admittedly, due to its geopolitical location and the tumultuous and volatile situation characteristic of its neighborhood, Turkey is bound to draw these experiences more often than most other countries. The obvious conclusion would then be that Turkey would again and again be courted and neglected following the changes of the political temperature. To a certain extent I object to this conclusion because I believe that courting will become more prevalent than neglect. A Swedish Prime Minister during the First World War once commented that the sympathy of foreign countries was a good thing but to enjoy their respect was better. Countries known for oscillating or opportunistic positions may, when conditions are favorable, receive expressions of sympathy but enjoy no respect and will therefore usually are neglected. But Turkey's foreign policy enjoys respect not least by * Former Swedish Ambassador to Ankara 4 offering predictability and reliability. Turkey can consequently count on being courted when other actors again find themselves in trouble - which they certainly will. Times change, conditions and circumstances change and politics are bound to be influenced. When I took up the post as ambassador to Turkey in the early weeks of 1990 and had my first encounters with my colleagues in the Turkish Foreign Ministry, they drew my attention to the fact that Turkey in reality only enjoyed two quiet frontiers characterized