Turkey has foreign policy positions, all linked to national issues that remind of trenches dug for battle. These policies, as old as the Republic, were conceived as solutions to the de facto situation that occurred after the collapse of Ottoman Empire. Every ethnic group separating from the empire formed a nation-state. Turks, or rather Muslims, had no chance but to become a nation as well. Problems that emerged within this frame have always hunted us in the form of ghosts or violence or enmity. All have been reflected in our foreign and domestic policies. These are the Armenian, Kurdish, and Greek or Helen questions. However, aside from the Annan Plan, which became an open-and-shut case in 2004 for a solution in Cyprus, there has been no significant policy change in these three questions since 1923.

After some 80 years, we see that these policies are becoming obsolete, as the high walls surrounding them are becoming cracked, and the physical and mental barriers are being torn down. Artificial constructions of the republican period are being criticized as all sorts of boundaries are being forced. This is obviously a painful process, but it is equally fascinating. Official diplomacy is running after the achievements and activities of a pushy civilian diplomacy. But most of the time it fails.

The Armenian border

In late July, Armenian President Serge Sargysan said that in order for him to attend the soccer game between Turkey and Armenia to be played in the central Anatolian city of Kayseri in the fall and to accept Turkish President Abdullah Gül’s invitation, the sealed border between the two countries should be opened. Expectations about the re-opening of the border reached a peak before the April 24 Armenian Remembrance Day. As a result of this oriental artlessness, the issue of opening the Armenian border was closed again. The border with an unknown future even has a Web campaign of 25,000 signatures that opposes any overture: www.turkiye-ermenistan-kapilar-acilmasin.org

The Iraq-Kurdistan border

In Oct, 2007, I wrote the following: “Domestically, political reforms of the period 2002-2004 are not supported by any economic structuring in the region as the PKK violence, which has started to show itself again in July 2004, quickened a shift to the same old military measures in the solution of the Kurdish issue. In fact, an AKP failing to design a detailed Kurdish policy on its own, is always prone to accept classical positions of the state on the matter. So once again, the ‘solution’ was sub-contracted to the military. Now, the AKP has given up all its claims to be on a new and different policy course.”

The Kurdish Initiative released in late July proves that the government is prudently getting away from this policy line. Obviously, we are taking a new turn where various boundaries, borders and limits will have to be removed as part of the initiative while we are moving into a brand new era. Though we are right at the beginning, I hope it would be finally understood that the Kurdish question is not just a security and law enforcement issue.

The Cyprus border

Another well known question that we will face once again in the fall is the Cyprus problem. The border dividing the island and Lefkosia (Nicosia) is known as the “Green Line” in Turkish, but Necri Zoni (Dead Zone) in Greek. For the complete removal of this border, presidents Dimitri Christophias and Mehmet Ali Talat, have been involved in reunification talks since mid-2008. Against all the odds, the talks proceed. In the north, although the National Unity Party, or UBP, which considers “no solution is the solution,” won the recent parliamentary elections and formed government, they do obey Ankara who tells them not to impede the course of the reunification talks.

Solution in Cyprus is directly related to Turkey’s accession talks with the European Union. As we become an EU member in the future, the Cyprus border will be removed completely.

Turkey’s borders, set as red-lines, are now slowing turning pink or they are becoming green – I mean open borders.

Source: Hurriyet – Cengiz Aktar
URL: www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkey8217s-borders-2009-08-07