CIAO DATE: 04/2012
Volume: 10, Issue: 2-3
Summer-Fall 2011
Serdar Gülener, İrfan Haşlak
In this work, relations between constitutional review and politics will be assessed in the framework of referrals of RPP as a main opposition party to the TCC. Getting a good grasp of this issue seems to be of importance since there have been some debates taking place around the boundaries of constitutional review in Turkey. Within this framework, firstly, judiciary-politics relations will be examined in the context of judicialization of politics. Then, the content of referrals of RPP to the Constitutional Court will be analyzed.
The Potential for a China-Russia Military Alliance Explored (PDF)
James MacHaffie
China is now a major power in the international system. One axiom of the realist theory on international politics is that states will acquire power to ensure their own position and security within the system. One effective way major, or Great Powers, have done this is through alliance building. Historically China has not had much success in cultivating long-standing alliances; however cooperation between it and its neighbor Russia have deepened. This paper, using structural and defensive realism as theoretical frameworks on how and why states form alliances, explores the potential for a sustainable Chinese-Russian military alliance.
Caucasus and Central Asia in Turkish Foreign Policy: The Time Has Come for a New Regional Policy (PDF)
M. Efe Çaman, M. Ali Akyurt
After the end of the Cold War, the disintegration of the Soviet Union (USSR) and the emergence of new independent states in the Caucasus and Central Asia, Turkey was forced to restructure its regional policy concept and started a new pursuit in its foreign policy. Turkey has been in interaction with this transition geography and has a complex array of economic, political and cultural relations with its neighboring regions. Since the AKP assumed power in 2002, Turkey has been trying to follow a pro-active regional policy approach and solve existing problems with its “zero problems with neighbors” policy concept. This article focuses on the Turkish regional policy in Caucasus and Central Asia and provides an assessment of this policy. It argues that Turkey needs a new applicable, feasible and realistic action plan regarding the Caucasus and Central Asia in order to combine its normative outlook with the realities of the region. The article asserts that in order to enhance cultural, economic and political ties with the region, first, the necessary structural and institutional conditions have to be created. The article also draws attention to the importance of organizations like TIKA, Turkic Council and Eurasian Economic Council as the institutional basis for Turkey’s cooperation efforts in the region.
Turkey and Iran Rivalry on Syria (PDF)
Idrees Mohammed
The bomb eventually goes off. The Arabs refute the conception, especially widespread in the West, that their religion or culture hampers democracy. Though the Arab movement towards democracy comes late, it becomes crystal clear Arab peoples can achieve what peoples already achieved in Latin America or Eastern Europe. The so-called “Arab Spring” takes place when several regimes in the Arab world mirror inability to meet the rising expectations of population in the era of globalization. Arabs today want to vote, speak freely, and participate in the country’s life. They appear not to still allow authoritarianism suppress the universal human rights. On the contrary, they prove ability to defend their interests and democratize. The Arab despots have for decades maintained complete monopolization over the state; spinning a Para-family structure over the power. The Syrian regime is by no elucidation exceptional. The regime has controlled the army, the security services, and the economy. The power has been employed for the merit of the regime. The record of the interaction between the regime and population in Syria tells massacres, deprivation of citizenship, single-party system…etc. These reasons helped to move the spark of the “Arab-Spring” into Syria. Millions have for months taken into streets chanting loudly and heatedly for transformation. They are on streets to witness the regime vigorously struggles to contain and shut them up. As the Syrian regime cracks down the protests, it faces increasing pressure from international and regional forces. Several Western states, led by the United States, called on the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step aside after he paid a deaf ear to constant calls to respond the demands of his people. On the other hand, several Arab countries re-called their ambassadors from Damascus for similar reasons. Turkey and Iran have since the beginning of the protests acted cautiously. Tehran and Ankara are two players of particular concerns and significance on the Syrian case. Being empire’s descendants and influence aspirants, Damascus solicits vital opportunities for Ankara and Tehran’s strategic priorities. However, the situation in Syria is now a zero-sum game since the interests of Turkey and Iran do not converge, in some sense. This thinking propelled Turkey and Iran to have important instruments invested in making their agendas successful vis-à-vis each other.
Britain's Policy Toward Kurdistan at the End of the First World War (PDF)
İhsan Kaymaz
In the aftermath of the First World War, Britain aimed to create an autonomous Kurdish state – or states – in northern Mesopotamia to be governed under its protection. It therefore experimented with various different methods between the years 1918 and 1920. All those attempts were proven futile. Using mainly the British and Ottoman archival material it has been inquired how the British authorities had developed the plan for Kurdistan, how they tried to implement it in the northern Iraq (then the Mosul vilayet) and the southeastern Anatolia respectively, and how they failed. The reasons for Britain’s failure had been discussed. After the failure new policy options had been given consideration among which, the debates on retreat came into prominence. The diplomatic negotiation process between the allies and the legal arrangements on Kurdistan that took pace in the Treaty of Sevres was of a nature of keeping up appearances. Kurdistan plan, though failed in 1920’s, gained ground in the following years as the international conditions became more convenient. As the Kurdish problem has once again become an issue of worldwide concern, it will be interesting to see how the British government dealt with this complicated problem when it first emerged, some ninety years ago.
Diplomacy, Regime Change Agenda and the Survival of Zimbabwe in the New Millennium (PDF)
Percyslage Chigora, Edson Ziso
The Zimbabwean government at the turn of the 2000 New Millennium received widespread ostracisation by some sections of the international community particularly the West. As a fairly small state and weak vis-à-vis its erstwhile adversaries who are powerful, the clear expectation based on conventional wisdom is that the regime would collapse instantly. For Zimbabwe the course of events did not turn as expected. On the contrary, emerging has been the ability of Zimbabwe to influence the international community not only those in the developing world but also the Western world itself for support largely through diplomatic efforts. The regime has stood the test of time and has not altered its behavior in the international system; its objectives have remained the same confronting its adversaries. The paper therefore seeks to analyse the ways through which the regime has been able to use diplomacy as a tool in international relations to achieve its objective in the face of a heavy onslaught by the powerful section of the international community. In essence, the paper will largely provide the basis through which weak states in the developing world can successfully use diplomacy to achieve their foreign policy objectives in the face of the powerful global actors.
The Impact of Changing Islamic Identity in Turkey's New Foreign Policy (PDF)
Martina Warning, Tuncay Kardaş
Much praise and calumny has been heaped on the new Turkish Foreign Policy (TFP) for its peculiar record in the last decade. In particular, probing into whether Turkey drifts from the West have recently become something of a cottage industry. Systematic studies analyzing complexities and nuances of the new TFP are scarce. Instead, both the champions and critics of the new TFP often cloak normative and empirical debate in hastily designed conceptual edifice, which not only tend to simplify and misconstrue the whole debate on what is at stake in Turkey’s changing identity and foreign policy but also expose deep misperceptions and confusions rather than scholarly communication. This article seeks to offer an analysis of Turkey’s new foreign policy orientations in relation to its identity-changes affect policies and positions of Turkey in world politics. It first provides a general overview of the approach developed by the founding figure of the new TFP, Ahmet Davutoğlu. Secondly, it identifies theoretical underpinnings of the new TFP with a view to evaluating the role of its religious and cultural identity. Then, a selection of discussions both from the advocates and critics with regard to empirical cases including Iraq and Israeli conundrums are put under scrutiny. Thirdly, the much-hyped debate as to whether the new TFP drifts from the west and its ideals are put into context order to provide a more balanced view of what is at issue in Turkey’s changing foreign policy orientations.
The Counter-Revolution in Diplomacy and Other Essays (G. R. Berridge) (PDF)
M. Ali Akyurt, N. Nevra Esentürk
G. R. Berridge is Emeritus Professor of International Relations at University of Leicester, UK. He has written many pieces on both the theory and practice of diplomacy, as author of Diplomacy: Theory and Practice, and as co-author of A Dictionary of Diplomacy (with Alan James), Diplomatic Theory from Machiavelli to Kissinger (with Maurice Keens-Soper and T. G. Otte). Berridge edited Diplomatic Classic: Selected Texts from Commynes to Vattel, and co-edited Diplomacy at the UN (with A. Jennings). He has also written books about specific historical cases, especially about British diplomacy in Turkey and South Africa.