Insights into Turkish Domestic and International Politics during 16-28 February 2013
By John VanPool, EGF Turkey and Black Sea Regional Analyst

Key Points:

• Negotiations over constitutional reform continue, with an agreement over the Chief of the General staff having been reached.
• AKP negotiators continue to push for a more powerful presidency, but opposition parties fear a lack of legislative and judicial checks on the office.
• Talks continue between the government and PKK leader Ocalan, though decades of conflict make a political solution remote in the short-term.
• A tense standoff in northern Syria between Kurdish and Arab fighters resembles similar conflicts for Kurdish minorities in other countries around the region. Ankara hopes that an agreement can be reached to keep northern Syria from becoming a PKK safe haven.
• An Israel-Turkey pipeline is impossible without Erdogan’s permission. Turkish energy firms specify their commitments in Iraq while trying to navigate the impasse between Erbil and Baghdad.

• March 12, 2013

Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin has expressed hope about the success of the next round of negotiations between Iran and the six major world powers in Almaty.

• March 11, 2013

When on 11 March 2011 a tsunami destroyed TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant complex, many believed that the catastrophe, if not ending nuclear power generation worldwide, would at least induce an element of caution into governments seeking to advance nuclear power projects.

• March 11, 2013

Controversial energy projects between Turkey and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) are necessary for the continued “normalization” of Iraq, according to Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız.

• March 11, 2013

If Kazakhstan does not reach an agreement with Russia over the price of gas from the Karachaganak field, this gas might be diverted to China, the Minister of Oil and Gas Sauat Mynbayev said during his speech in the parliament

• March 9, 2013

During his recent State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama continued to articulate his desire to increase spending on a whole host of priorities. However, when it comes to one of our nation’s most critical needs, maintaining our nuclear deterrent, the President seems to want to look for savings wherever he can.

• March 9, 2013

Bottom Line: Bulgaria’s scrapping of a Russian pipeline deal to carry Russian and Caspian oil to Greece is a response to the government’s collapse in February over energy prices that demonstrate how energy giant Russia can bring down a government.

• March 9, 2013

India has proposed building a pipeline to carry direct supplies of hydrocarbons from Kazakhstan's oil and gas rich Caspian region. The proposal is part of New Delhi's wider attempt to deepen co-operation with Astana to help secure the energy it needs to meet India's steadily growing demand.

• March 8, 2013