Turkey: Trouble Brewing With Greece Over Maritime Territorial Claims?

by Yigal Schleifer | Eurasianet.org

Last week's visit to Turkey by Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras certainly hit all the right positive notes. Dozens of bilateral agreements were signed by the two countries and Samaras and his Turkish counterpart both vowed to increase trade between Turkey and Greece and to work together to solve the Cyprus problem.

The two once-bickering neighbors have certainly come a long way from decades past, when a visit like Samaras's to Turkey -- now something fairly routine -- would have been hailed as a major breakthrough. That said, it appears that some trouble might be in store for Turkey-Greece relations, particularly regarding the issue of Athens' desire to lay claim to a vast amount of potentially oil- and gas-rich maritime territory in the eastern Mediterranean. From a recent Wall Street Journal report that came out only days after Samaras left Turkey:

Greece has renewed its territorial claims over a broad swath of disputed waters in the eastern Mediterranean where the indebted country hopes to find vast oil and gas deposits—a plan that risks sparking a confrontation with Turkey.

Over the past several weeks, senior government officials have made a series of public statements—both at home and abroad—pointing to an almost two-decade-old international treaty granting those rights, one Greece hasn't asserted until now. Athens also has been building support in other European capitals and stepping up a diplomatic campaign at the United Nations….

Natural gas as the game-changer in world energy and geopolitics

by Mehmet Öğütçü | Kalem Journal

"Natural gas as the game-changer in world energy and geopolitics: Implications for, and actions from, Turkey" was prepared by Mehmet Ögütçü for the Marmara Group Foundation roundtable, conducted in cooperation with Kalem Journal, titled "Natural Gas as the Game Changer", held on January 24, 2013 in Istanbul.

Over the past twenty years we have gone through a series of fundamental “game-changing” developments in almost every domain of our lives, be in economy, geopolitics, security, technology, and values. Yet another one is now breeding and has the potential to “revolutionise” the world energy sector, generating profound implications for, and need for prompt responses from, Turkey.

The transfer of power from West to East has now become a cliché and is quickly gathering pace. As a result, not only the game itself, but also the players and rules of the game in energy have been changing. In this process, Turkey is poised to become one of the key players and influencers, particularly as far as the shaping of the Eurasian/Middle Eastern energy game is concerned.

Today, China is the most obvious power on the rise, likely to dethrone the US as the world’s economic superpower over the next two decades if things progress as widely predicted. But Beijing is not alone: India and other dynamic Asian economies now boast growth rates that could outstrip those of major Western countries for decades to come. Many in the West are already aware of Asia's growing strength. This awareness, however, has not yet been translated into preparedness in the form of either effectively challenging or accommodating it.

Let’s not forget: major shifts of power between states, not to mention regions, occur infrequently and are rarely peaceful. In the early twentieth century, the imperial order and the aspiring states of Germany and Japan failed to adjust to each other. This conflict resulted devastated large parts of the globe. Today, the transformation of the international system will be even bigger and the rising new powers are nationalistic, seek redress of past grievances, and want to claim their place in the sun.

Cyprus Conflict Prevents EU-NATO Strategic Partnership

By Remziye Yilmaz  | Atlantic Community

 

Despite all efforts to have a fully-fledged strategic partnership between the EU and NATO, such a genuine strategic partnership has still not been achieved because of various obstacles. Cyprus conflict is one of the main obstacles that have decreased EU-NATO cooperation in the context of security and defense.

 

At the political level, the conflict has caused restricted participation, narrow agenda and informal meetings between the two organizations. Since Turkey does not recognize the ‘Republic of Cyprus' officially and Cyprus has not concluded the PfP agreement with NATO, Turkey does not allow the Greek Cypriot Administration to attend the EU-NATO meetings. Because Cyprus is not at the table, the EU does not want to discuss any points outside of the ‘Berlin Plus' Agreement. This situation has blocked the EU-NATO cooperation on fundamental security issues. With the initiatives of some members of the two organizations, their officials meet informally. But these meetings do not lead to any concrete and official results.

At the military-strategic level, the conflict has decreased the dialogue between the EU and NATO. The lack of dialogue at military level has caused duplication and inefficient uses of resources. In addition, the conflict has increased institutional strictness within the EU, which has resulted in the EU-led missions without NATO support.  On the ground, Cyprus has rejected the use of the EU capabilities by NATO and Turkey also does not allow the EU to use the NATO capabilities and assets. Turkey refuses such a share because it does not have oversight or control over the EU-led missions where Turkey cannot participate in since Cyprus rejects. On the ground, difficult negotiations are taking place. This situation has caused unnecessary risks for the troops in the fields and impedes both organizations from assessing the strength and weaknesses of the operations in order to promote the best methods for future missions.

Turkey is economic winner of Iraq war

By Daniel Dombey | Financial Times

 

Istanbul — The Americans won the war, the Iranians won the peace and the Turks won the contracts.

Turkey, which blocked the deployment of U.S. troops through its territory during the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, is emerging 10 years on as one of the prime beneficiaries of the battle for the Iraqi market.
 

Although Turkey’s relations with Baghdad are increasingly bitter, its exports to Iraq have in the past decade soared by more than 25 percent a year, reaching $10.8 billion in 2012, making Iraq Ankara’s second-most valuable export market after Germany.

Ozgur Altug, an economist at BGC Partners in Istanbul, predicts that as Iraq grows richer because of its oil reserves, demand for Turkish goods will keep climbing — by more than $2 billion a year. Turkish contractors have also been doing rich business, working on about $3.5 billion of construction projects last year, according to businessmen and officials.

One company, Calik Energy, boasts that it is building the two biggest projects in the Iraqi power sector, two gas turbine plants in the Mosul and Karbala regions, earning more than $800 million from the Iraqi government in the process.

While Iran is seen as the most influential outside power in Iraq today, on Baghdad’s streets Turkey’s presence is more visible than that of any other country, with everything from malls to furniture stores to pavement bricks bearing a Turkish trademark.