Probably the greatest achievement of last Thursday’s European Council was that its conclusions were refuted within hours after they were published. While the official text of the Council results boasts about a “joint action plan with Turkey”, to stem the immigration flows to the EU, the Turkish minister of Foreign Affairs Feridun Sinirlioglu commented otherwise. […]Europe slammed by Turkey’s shaky Erdoğan; both playing with immigrants’ agony
October 19, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Probably the greatest achievement of last Thursday’s European Council was that its conclusions were refuted within hours after they were published. While the official text of the Council results boasts about a “joint action plan with Turkey”, to stem the immigration flows to the EU, the Turkish minister of Foreign Affairs Feridun Sinirlioglu commented otherwise. […]The UN supports Europe’s military action in Libya and the Mediterranean; Russia and China agree
October 12, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Last Friday 9 October the UN Security Council and its five permanent members unanimously decided to actually trade entire nations and geographical regions between them. To this effect they authorized the European Union to employ warships in the Libyan waters to “board ships for inspection, seize and even dispose of vessels suspected of being used […]The West – the EU and the US – is writing off Turkey’s Erdogan
June 15, 2015 by Leave a Comment
For the first time in the history of the EU-Turkish relations the European Parliament openly and loudly welcomed last week the heavy losses of the governing party in a general election. The MEPs actually rejoiced on “the most inclusive and representative parliament in Turkish modern history, reflecting the country’s diversity”, forgetting that it’s a hang […]Merry Christmas from Erdogan, Putin, Mogherini and the Polish firefighter
December 24, 2014 by Leave a Comment
One month is more than enough in international diplomacy to flip the world. During the last month of this long 2014 we were cought by surprise by the speed of the evolutions regarding the “EU-Turkey” project. Things were changing so fast every week of this December that even the most experienced analysts remained numb and thus preferred […]EU’s Mogherini visits Turkey “to step up engagement” and highlight interests
December 9, 2014 by Leave a Comment
As announced last week through an official European Union statement, EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini and two other senior EU officials are visiting Turkey this week. The High Representative of the EU, together with Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement, Negotiations Johannes Hahn, and Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Christos Stylianides, […]Turkey presents a new strategy for EU accession but foreign policy could be the lucky card
September 24, 2014 by 1 Comment
Last Thursday, September 18, while the entire continent was looking towards Scotland, Turkey announced a new strategy to join the EU. Despite the tensions that characterized the country’s recent history, which is made by protests, brutal actions by the police, attempts by the government to shut down social platforms such as Twitter and You Tube, Turkey has […]#TwitterisblockedinTurkey and so is Erdogan
March 25, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Last Thursday night Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan officially ‘declared war’ to Twitter. With a public, old authoritarianism-scented speech at late evening, he announced that he wants to “eradicate Twitter”, adding that the social media platform is a “menace” and he’s “not interested in what the international community says”. “They will see the power […]The US banks drive the developing world to a catastrophe
January 31, 2014 by Leave a Comment
How is it possible that the good news of the growth of the American economy which has raised its gear, also brings forth crisis and possibly destruction in developing countries? Yet this is exactly what is already happening in our brave new world. The good news is that the US economy now grows at a […]OECD tells Eurozone to prepare its banks for a tsunami coming from developing countries
November 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment
OECD is not like the IMF. The Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development, unlike the International Monetary Fund doesn’t chew its words, when it comes to the economic prospects of the global economy. The reason is that its mandate obliges the Organisation to effectively protect its 34 member states from the dangers lurking ahead, by […]Preparing for developing countries the ‘Greek cure’
October 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
IMF economists, Kalpana Kochhar and Roberto Perrelli, in their study entitled “How Emerging Markets Can Get Their Groove Back”, posted yesterday by iMFdirect, give a rather frightening response to this question. They conclude that “we estimate that emerging market’s “potential” growth needs to be revised down”. IMF Economic counsellor and director of the Research Department, […]IMF’s Lagarde to Peoples of the world: You have to work more for the banks!
September 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, delivered a speech recently during this year’s Jackson Hole Symposium, praising the Unconventional Monetary Policies (UMP) followed by the central banks to save the world from a great depression, similar to the one of 1929. The risk was real as Lagarde noted but she didn’t […]OECD: Mind the financial gap that lies ahead
September 10, 2013 by 1 Comment
A rather disappointing picture of the world economy drew OECD Deputy Chief Economist Jorgen Elmeskov last week, when he said that “The gradual pick-up in momentum in the advanced economies is encouraging but a sustainable recovery is not yet firmly established. Major risks remain”. If it was not for China’s predicted growth during the last […]EU plans to exploit the Mediterranean Sea and the wealth beneath it
July 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment
At a time when the Mediterranean Sea is not at its most peaceful times the European Commission presented a study which finds that the “establishment of maritime zones, including Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs), in the Mediterranean would benefit the EU’s Blue Growth and wider sustainability agendas”. The study is entitled “Costs and benefits arising from […]Where is Egypt leading the Middle East and the Mediterranean economy?
July 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment
There is no doubt that the Egyptian experiment of democratic political and economic transformation of the country by the Muslim Brotherhood has failed in every respect and the West recognised it. No wonder why no western government or the UN termed the intervention of the Egyptian army and the toppling of President Mohamed Morsi, as […]European Union disenchanted with Turkey
June 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The accidental coincidence of the visit of the European Commissioner Štefan Füle, responsible for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy to Turkey last week, with the crtical moment when the events in Istanbul’s Taksim Square were at their peak, may affect negatively the relations between the EU and this country. Negotiations over Ankara’s roadmap to become one […]Can the Americans alone determine the future of Syria?
January 14, 2013 by 1 Comment
The last speech of Bashar al Assad on the first Friday of New Year, which deeply disappointed the West and the Sunni Arabs in the oil rich countries of the Persian Gulf, was about an all-out war. He spoke of “a full scale war” against the enemies of his regime, mainly the Sunni Muslims. But […]Is Erdogan losing game and match within and without Turkey?
December 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Turkish candidacy for full EU membership, get caught in the Cypriot problem or at least this is what the average technocrat in every European Foreign ministry will tell you. But people, who are implicated in the whole affair, are insisting that this is what Ankara wants everybody else to believe. In reality however it […]
