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  • ISTANBUL: Middle East was hot potato for Turkish foreign policy in 2

    Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
    Jan 1 2014

    Middle East was hot potato for Turkish foreign policy in 2013

    ANKARA
    Sevil ErkuÅ?


    2013 has been a tough period for Turkish foreign policy amid mounting
    instability in the Middle East, which added new tensions with
    countries such as Egypt, following Syria and Iraq.

    As the Egyptian military ousted the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed
    Morsi, Turkey became one of the fiercest critics of the coup.

    Turkey declared Egypt's ambassador in Ankara a `persona non grata' in
    a reciprocal step after Cairo expelled its envoy over remarks made by
    Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an, which Cairo deemed as
    `provocative.'

    Without any doubt, Syria, a potential fireball, was among the top
    issues of 2013, with declining hopes that the al-Assad regime will
    collapse in the near future, putting the extremist groups fighting in
    Syria at the core of concern for the international community.

    The allegations that those groups use Turkish territory for safe
    houses and crossing into Syria became a common question in Turkish
    foreign policy, which Turkish leaders often had to reaffirm they do
    not support radical groups.

    Strained ties between Turkey and Syria continued with reciprocal
    military maneuvers. A Turkish F-16 jet shot down a Syrian MI-17 attack
    helicopter in September, saying it made a 2 km incursion into its
    airspace, ignoring warnings. Turkish war jets scramble to intercept
    Syrian military planes approaching Turkish airspace almost every
    second day.

    The number of Syrian refugees sheltered in Turkish territory, exceeded
    500,000; as nearly 300,000 of them are living in camps, yet the rest
    have to survive on their own.

    Two Turkish pilots Murat Akpınar and Murat AÄ?ca were kidnapped by
    gunmen on Aug. 9 near the Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport. A
    group called Zuwwar Imam Ali al-Reda claimed responsibility for the
    abduction, demanding Turkey put pressure on the Syrian opposition to
    release nine Lebanese Shiite pilgrims who were kidnapped by rebels in
    the conflict-hit country in May of last year.

    The pilots were released after negotiations for a package including
    the release of hundreds of political prisoners in Syria.

    Following two years of deteriorating relations between Turkey and the
    Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government, Ankara and Baghdad
    stepped up for rapprochement, while foreign ministers from the two
    countries paid reciprocal visits.

    Al-Maliki was expected to pay a visit to Turkey in December or
    January; however, an energy deal between Ankara and Iraqi Kurds irked
    Baghdad. The Prime Minister of Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government
    (KRG) Nechirvan Barzani paid a visit to Ankara in December, and
    parties agreed on some `commercial agreements' on export of oil from
    northern Iraq to Turkey. Test flows in Iraqi Kurdistan's crude oil
    pipeline to Turkey have started recently, while discussions are going
    on between Iraqi Kurds, Turkey and the al-Maliki government on the
    conditions of energy cooperation.

    Israel apology on Mavi Marmara

    Israel issued a formal apology to Turkey and agreed to pay
    compensation over the Mavi Marmara killings from 2010 on March 22
    after a phone conversation between the two countries' premiers,
    Benjamin Netanyahu and ErdoÄ?an, which was brokered by U.S. President
    Barack Obama.

    Following the apology, the two countries' delegations held three
    rounds of talks on compensation for the Mavi Marmara victims, yet the
    negotiations have not finalized.

    After two years of standstill in the accession negotiations with the
    EU due to a blockage of negotiation chapters, France, with the new
    government under President François Hollande, lifted its blockage on
    Chapter 22.

    On this basis, the EU General Affairs Council, during its meeting on
    June 25, 2013, decided to open this chapter. Negotiations on Chapter
    22 -Regional Policies- launched in November during the Lithuanian
    Presidency.

    The 4th Judiciary Reform Package was adopted by the Turkish Grand
    National Assembly on April 12, 2013. In addition, on the basis of the
    laws adopted in June 2012, Ombudsman started to receive petitions in
    March 2013.

    Turkey and the EU launched visa liberalization talks in exchange of
    the readmission agreement in December.

    In a recent visit to Yerevan for a meeting regarding the Black Sea
    Economic Cooperation, Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu stepped up to
    proceed normalizations between Turkey and Armenia. The `deportation'
    of Armenians in 1915 was inhumane, and Turkey has never supported the
    move, DavutoÄ?lu said in a press conference in Yerevan.


    January/01/2014
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/middle-east-was-hot-potato-for-turkish-foreign-policy-in-2013.aspx?pageID=238&nID=60390&NewsCatID=338


    From: Baghdasarian
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