Turkey and the European security and defense identity - a turkish view
erschienen in der Publikation "GASP: Die Entwicklung der Gemeinsamen Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik aus außereuropäischer Sicht (3/00)" (ISBN: 3-901328-47-5) - Juni 2000
Autor(en):
Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Bağci
10 Seiten (146 KB)
Schlagworte zu diesem Beitrag:
Türkei, Politik, Europa, Sicherheitspolitik, Außenpolitik, Verteidigungspolitik
Abstract:
The discussions on ESDI in Turkey became very intense since the EU Summit in Helsinki December 1999 where Turkey was officially given the status of a candidate for EU membership. Never before in the last 50 years of Turkey’s security discussions has such a level been reached as now. There are some concerns among the political as well as academic and military circles concerning the further developments of the ESDI.1 Whether those concerns are justifiable or not is another academic question. What matters here is that Turkey may take the ESDI process more seriously than the EU. It is the objective of the article to show how Turkey sees this process and what it thinks this process will lead to, with the aim to be part of it.
During the political Union negotiations which led up to the Maastricht Treaty launching the EU in the early 1990s, the most contentious debate focused on the nature of the ESDI and the future of the WEU. One aspect of the Maastricht Treaty left the status of ESDI edging closer to a link between the WEU and the EU. This was the decision to give the automatic right to all EU member states to become members of the WEU2. The ESDI that emerged from Maastricht assigned a central role to the WEU in essence, a role of double allegiance to both the Union and NATO. The two relationships are asymmetrical in nature and evolutionary in substance3. To reflect this relationship in more concrete terms, the Maastricht declaration of the WEU Ministerial Council made the following offers: "States which are members of the EU are invited to accede to WEU on conditions to be agreed in accordance with Article XI of the modified Brussels Treaty, or to become observers if they so wish. Simultaneously, other European member states of NATO are invited to become associate members of WEU in a way which will give them the possibility to participate fully in the activities of WEU."
During the political Union negotiations which led up to the Maastricht Treaty launching the EU in the early 1990s, the most contentious debate focused on the nature of the ESDI and the future of the WEU. One aspect of the Maastricht Treaty left the status of ESDI edging closer to a link between the WEU and the EU. This was the decision to give the automatic right to all EU member states to become members of the WEU2. The ESDI that emerged from Maastricht assigned a central role to the WEU in essence, a role of double allegiance to both the Union and NATO. The two relationships are asymmetrical in nature and evolutionary in substance3. To reflect this relationship in more concrete terms, the Maastricht declaration of the WEU Ministerial Council made the following offers: "States which are members of the EU are invited to accede to WEU on conditions to be agreed in accordance with Article XI of the modified Brussels Treaty, or to become observers if they so wish. Simultaneously, other European member states of NATO are invited to become associate members of WEU in a way which will give them the possibility to participate fully in the activities of WEU."