Turkey's diplomatic/trade offensive to former Ottoman Empire countries

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has just finished visiting Albania, where a Turkish university will be established (presumably secular with a Muslim Studies department, but not an outright Muslim or Islamicist university which latter could be expected to export terrorist ideology). Turkey's turn toward Europe and EU membership may lead to a counterforce to Islamic radicalism in such places as Bosnia-Herzegovina (where he is presently visiting), and Kosovo (where he is unlikely to go at present because of political uncertainties there).

Albania's Nano & Turkey's Erdogan, pr photo uploaded by Anaximaximumphotographics.

Image Credit: ARDIphoto

But at some point Kosovo too would be a natural center for Turkish diplomacy and priority investment and trade, since it too was one of the spots too hot to visit due to current political uncertainties. Another hotspot that discourages Erdogan's visit at present is the Turkish Cypriot poltical entity, which wants to reopen relations with Greek-speaking Cyprus whiere, unfortunately, the parliamentary majority has rebuffed ties on the island. The EU has insisted these problems be resolved, and a minority of the Cyprus parliament has actively campaigned for opening to Turkish Cyprus, because otherwise Cyprus will not be admitted into the European Union.

The same sort of problem obtains for Kosovo. Today, Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, made clear that Kosovo, formally still a province of Serbia-Montenegro (but now with its own elected parliament under UN administration) had yet to meet fully any of the eight requirements which the UN has defined as necessary before talks on Kosovo's status could begin.

"The UN has set out a list of specific, point-by-point targets -- covering areas such as democratic institutions, security and the rule of law, freedom of movement, refugee returns, the economy, and dialogue -- which must be achieved before talks on Kosovo's future status may begin." One of the problems has been the designation of a radical Islamicist as prime minister; and the other chief problem is the refusal of the Serbian population to participate in the elections, on the encouragement of the rightwing government in Serbia. Just recently, rather than Erdogan arriving in Pristina, the Kosovo capital, the Serbian Prime Minister arrived from Belgrade, and then left, promising he would never give up Serbia's claim to sovereignty on this predominately Muslim society. That's the formula for impasse, and for the continued resentment of the majority against the recalcitrant minority. - Owlb

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