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Copyright of Itobiad: Journal of the Human & Social Science Researches / İnsan ve Toplum Bilimleri Araştırmaları Dergisi is the property of Itobiad: Journal of the Human & Social Science Researches and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper aims to evaluate the state of Greek-Turkish relations in light of recent developments in the reconfiguration of Turkish foreign policy. Following twenty years of détente and relative calm in bilateral relations, the year 2020 witnessed two escalations in Greek-Turkish relations, one in March involving refugees and immigrants on the Greek-Turkish land border and another in August involving military vessels of the two countries. The refugee crisis and potential military conflict regarding energy exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean have raised tensions at a moment the political and institutional tools for the promotion of conflict resolution between Greece and Turkey linked to Turkey's EU membership perspective appear to be obsolete. This paper seeks an answer to the question of whether structural or ideational factors played the most prominent role in the recent escalation of the Greek-Turkish disputes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hellenic Studies / Etudes Helleniques is the property of Centre for Hellenic Studies & Research Canada-KEEK and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

For hundreds of years, the Eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus has been subjected to the — not always welcome — attentions of external powers, finally gaining some independence from Britain in 1960. Since then, Cyprus has been the object of three international crises, almost leading to war between NATO members Greece and Turkey. Following a Turkish invasion and occupation which continues to the present, tensions have continued, while Turkey continues to occupy over one-third of Cyprus, an EU member, while trying itself to gain entry to the organisation. Papers released by British government departments in January 2008 reveal the following: an increasingly submissive yet tetchy attitude in British foreign policy formulation vis-à-vis American pressure (mainly Kissinger) on Britain not to leave Cyprus; the question of the USA financing the British bases; British government criticism of Turkey's perceived intransigence in finding a solution to the Cyprus conundrum; British government criticism of Turkey's position on its continental-shelf dispute with Greece; Britain's strong support for Turkey's European aspirations, flying in the face of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Cyprus' recommendations; past and future President Clerides' seeming contentedness with the British military presence on Cyprus; and a marked difference between French and British views. The article concludes that the British government submitted to US demands and suggests that Cyprus remains a cat's paw of big-power politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the impact of Turkey's EU candidacy process on Turkish foreign policy towards Cyprus. In doing that it focuses on the impact of the EU's political conditionality on Turkey's Cyprus policy through the lenses of the Europeanization approach to foreign-policy change. The main argument of the paper is that even though Turkey's foreign-policy objective with regard to Cyprus has not substantially been transformed, the policy strategies, tools and opportunity structures of foreign-policy makers have considerably altered along Turkey's process of Europeanization. The paper, therefore, explores the policy change and continuity in terms of three major historical turning points in Turkey- EU relations in order to analyze the extent to which Turkey's Cyprus policy was influenced by the EU. These turning points are the post-Helsinki period (1999- 2002), the process of accession negotiations (2002-2006), and the post-December 2006, the European Commission's Regular Report on Turkey. In all these periods, the resolution of the Cyprus conflict remained a major foreign-policy challenge for Turkey-EU relations. However, it is evident that Turkey's policy responses to the EU's political conditionality concerning Cyprus have significantly been transformed through Turkey's process of Europeanization, which spans the period from 1999 to 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Turkish-Greek relations are thorny relations, dominated by military intervention on some occasions and the threat of the use of military force at other times. This study came to analyze the principles of both Turkey and Greek foreign policy, shed light on the most important factors that limit Turkish-Greek relations, and present three scenarios for the future of Turkish-Greek relations. To achieve these objectives, the study used a decision-making approach and revealed that Turkish-Greek relations are determined by various contentious issues represented by the dispute in the Aegean Sea, the dispute over the island of Cyprus, the dispute over the continental shelf, the refusal to recognize the Turkish minority in Greece, Athens' harboring of Turkish and Kurdish opponents wanted by the Turkish government, exploratory talks, Greece's strategy in dealing with Turkey, and the exploration for natural resources in the Mediterranean. In light of the determinants of Turkish-Greek relations, the study proposed three Scenarios for the future of that bilateral relation: The first scenario is to maintain the status quo, the second scenario is to improve Turkish-Greek relations, the third scenario is to worsen Turkish-Greek relations. These scenarios are subject to their occurrence in light of developments on the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the rationale and modus operandi of Turkey's soft power projection in north Cyprus ['TRNC'] with the aim to better understand its effects on the Turkish Cypriot political and social spheres. The study explores the recorded activities carried out by Turkey's most prominent soft power agencies in north Cyprus and cross-checks findings with field-notes collected from 2018 to 2021. While acknowledging that under AKP's rule, religion, history, and humanitarian ideals have constituted the backbone of Turkey's soft power agenda in areas important to its foreign policy interests, the analysis demonstrates that Turkish soft power does not simply rest on the attractiveness and persuasiveness of its 'message value' alone. Turkey exercises a centrally coordinated and multi-dimensional soft power that capitalizes heavily on dependencies and local vulnerabilities. With the use of subtle and direct forms of coercion and interference, understood as part of a legitimate exchange of 'influence for security', Turkey's soft power content and methodologies have become particularly problematic, as they do not presume the purely voluntary, independent, and co-opting nature of relations between the powerholder and the receptor community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Dumlupinar University Journal of Social Science / Dumlupinar Üniversitesi Soysyal Bilimler Dergisi is the property of Dumlupinar University (Journal of Social Sciences) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Cyprus has featured prominently on Turkey's foreign policy agenda in recent years. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has weaved this long-standing issue into a broader narrative of 'geographical imagination'. Cyprus policy has thus reflected the AKP's socio-political vision of a 'Yeni Türkiye' (New Turkey), first articulated nearly a decade ago, in which well-entrenched narratives about national identity and the Cyprus conflict are central. Against this backdrop, Cyprus has been leveraged in the twin interests of AKP survival (boosting incumbency through nationalist appeals) and Turkey's regional power aspirations. The present article offers a timely survey of Turkey's Cyprus policy over a 15-year period from 2002 (when the AKP rose to power) until the failure of the negotiation talks on Cyprus in Crans-Montana, Switzerland in July 2017. In so doing, the article charts the important continuities as well as the key markers of transition in Ankara's policy towards Cyprus under the AKP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hellenic Studies / Etudes Helleniques is the property of Centre for Hellenic Studies & Research Canada-KEEK and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article examines the role the European Union has played in the Cyprus Problem since the EU accession of the Republic of Cyprus in 2004. Its main thesis is that six years of EU membership [and the accession process) are - with respect to the Cyprus Question - littered with false hopes, miscalculations and misperceptions by all main actors. The paper focuses on two aspects that have dominated the relations between the EU and Cyprus: Firstly, it reconstructs the failed attempts of powerful actors within the European Union to overcome Greek Cypriot resistance in its efforts to implement the EU pledge from 2004 to end the isolation of the Turkish Cypriots. Secondly, it examines the repeated attempts of the Greek Cypriots to utilise their EU membership as well as the Turkish aspirations to join the Union in order to press Ankara for concession in the Cyprus Question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both communities in the Cyprus dispute have at different times objected to the intervention of the United Nations when in their view mediatory function was somewhat replaced by more forceful methods resembling arbitration. In 1965, the UN Mediator, Galo Plaza, issued a Report that met outright opposition from Turkey and Turkish Cypriots on the grounds that the mediator had acted as an arbiter. In 2004, the Annan Plan was rejected by the Greek Cypriots feeling that the kind of settlement proposed was an imposition by the outsiders. This short paper aims to assess the intervening role of the UN in Cyprus in respect of peacemaking and peacekeeping from 1964 to the present day. Both the traditional nature of the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus UNFICYP as well as the oscillating diplomatic efforts of the organisation to bring about a settlement have been discussed. The attitude of the belligerent parties to the UN involvement, their concerns and expectation as well as the influence of the major powers through the organisation to tailor a solution has accordingly been analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Middle Eastern Studies / Ortadoğu Etütleri is the property of Turkmen Cooperation & Cultural Foundation Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies (ORSAM) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Rouya Turkiyyah is the property of Insight Turkey and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article analyzes Turkey's relationship with the European Union (EU) against the background of the latest Turkish parliamentary elections in June 2011. The main argument is that Turkey's European transformation at home and abroad will continue under the third term of the Justice and Development Party rule, yet Turkish rulers will increasingly find it difficult to put EU membership issue at the center of this process. At present, it appears that neither is the EU eager and flexible as to offer Turkey credible membership prospects nor is Turkey's ruling party maintaining the same degree of commitment to the EU as it had during its first term in government. Rather than the dynamics of the accession process, the growing need to find a solution to the decade-long Kurdish dispute in a liberal-democratic fashion as well as Turkey's ability to deal with the rising foreign and security policy challenges in the context of the Arab Spring will shape Turkey's European transformation in years ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although EU-NATO institutional relations have been evolving since the Saint-Malo Declaration in 1998, efficient and coherent cooperation is still lacking. This article goes beyond the narrative of blockage caused purely at the political level in order to illustrate both formal and informal EU-NATO cooperation at both the centre (Brussels) and on the ground (missions). This article addresses cooperation in terms of the actors involved at three different levels: state actors, international staff, and military personnel. Although, much has been done to advance cooperation between international staffers in Brussels and between those on the ground in common mission areas, the lack of a political agreement - one that moves beyond the limited scope of Berlin Plus - is causing severe fatigue, most notably at the level of international staff. Furthermore, the informal and ad hoc cooperation that has been the underlying facilitator of synergy between the two organisations could start to atrophy if a grand or intermediary bargain is not achieved in the near future.1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay analyzes the views of the governments of Greece and Cyprus towards the question of Turkish membership in the European Union. Specifically, it shows that fundamental differences have emerged in the way in which the two perceive the benefits of Turkish engagement with the EU. For Greece, Turkish accession is seen as a transformative process. For the Greek Cypriots, the process of Turkish accession is viewed as a form of leverage. Moreover, and contrary to the prevailing view in certain quarters, there is no evidence of Greek collusion in Greek Cypriot thinking. Indeed, the ability of the Greek government to influence the Greek Cypriot leadership is rather limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the interplay between the domestic dynamics of Turkish foreign policy regarding Cyprus by identifying the main themes formulated by Erdoğan’s JDP government and its implications for Turkey’s EU membership. It argues that considering the Cyprus issue—once regarded a major obstacle for Turkey’s EU bid—as no longer constituting a problem for Turkey’s membership has been shortsighted. It concludes that JDP’s policy has gradually made the Cyprus issue a precondition for the opening and success of the accession talks, which would in turn be counterproductive with respect to Turkey’s EU membership in the medium to long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the implications of the accession of Cyprus to the European Union in 2004 for the relationship of Greece with Turkey and Turkey with Europe. Role of Cyprus in the foreign policy of Greece; Rejection by the Greek Cypriots to the accession; Role of international law on Cyprus' problem; Evaluation of the Annan Plan.

Particularly since the beginning of the new millennium, the Cyprus issue that had hitherto been successfully securitized and bureaucratized has turned out to be the main 'discursive battlefield' of the polarization among ruling elites in Turkey. Framed within a historical perspective, the present article re-examines Turkey's security discourse on Cyprus with particular reference to its implications for the (re)configuration of political balances and power relations between the conservative state elite - namely, the civilian and military bureaucracy - and the reformist political elite in Turkey. It concludes that the security language devised by the Turkish 'foreign' policy and security establishment has been operational in both inscribing the legitimate boundaries of the political sphere and crippling the manoeuvring ability of governments vis-à-vis the strong bureaucratic establishment in Turkey. The article also aims at encouraging the reader to critically reflect on power politics of 'foreign' policymaking in Turkey and its implications for domestic politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cyprus Problem has been a complex and difficult international issue since 1974 when Turkey invaded the northern part of the Island following the (then ruling) Athens junta-engineered coup against Archbishop Makarios. The United Nations (UN) Security Council and its General Assembly have repeatedly stated that the situation on the Island is an unacceptable violation of international law and other UN principles and that a 'just and lasting solution' be found. From the beginning of the Cyprus Problem, the European Community/Union (EU) has consistently, at least at the rhetorical level, supported the UN resolutions and other efforts made to find a solution to the Problem. Since the December 1999 Helsinki European Council meeting, the EU and all its member states have stated that the lack of a solution to the Cyprus Problem will not be regarded as an obstacle to Cyprus&apos accession to the Union. Now that the Athens Accession Treaty with 10 candidate states, including the Republic of Cyprus, has been signed (16 April 2003), all 10 countries are scheduled to join the EU in May 2004. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]