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| Cyprus, Turkey and the EU. Inextricably bound in a vicious circle |
Lenka Peťková | 29.12.2009
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The upcoming developments in the peace-talks between the two Cypriot communities' representatives, i.e. Dimitris Christofias and Mehmet Ali Talat, will have a significant impact on the future of the divided Mediterranean island as well as on the accession process of Turkey to the EU. All parties involved in the "Cyprus – Turkey – EU” triangle eagerly waited for the conclusions of the EU's General Affairs Council and Foreign Affairs Council held in December 2009. Since Brussels decided to freeze the accession talk with Ankara in 2006 in eighth out of thirty-one chapters due to the non-compliance of Turkey with the provisions of the Ankara Protocol, according to which it has to open its ports and airport to the Republic of Cyprus'...
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| Turkey’s EU membership and the Public Opinion |
| Lenka Peťková | 30.12.2008
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A high-level political debate about the prospects of possible Turkish membership in the EU has been intensifying since Turkey became a candidate country in 1999. However, the state leaders might not be the ones to have the final say. Some member states have already announced they would hold a referendum and let people decide whether to let Turkey in or not. According to the latest news the authorities in Ankara will go for a popular approval of Turkish membership once the accession talks are successfully completed as well. The public opinion in both the EU as well as Turkey may thus create yet another complication in the rather rocky EU – Turkey relations. In summer 2008, a referendum draft bill concerning the accession of new countries to the EU was successfully passed in the first reading...
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| Traffic in arms. Suppliers and buyers |
| Pavel Usov | 12.11.2008
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Si vis pacem, para bellum
States, nations and humankind used to put and still put the greatest effort possible into manufacturing and selling arms for mutual destruction. It seems as if the world's states were continually prepared for a war with an unknown enemy. Every year, approximately 8 million pieces of light weapons and 12 billion cartridges are produced around the world. According to statistics, one gun falls on ten world's inhabitants. Thousand people die every day in the aftermath of firearm use. In accordance with the latest data by Small Arms Survey as many as 500,000 people die as a consequence of firearm use. According to the Swedish organisation SIPRI dealing with the issues...
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| Cyprus: rise and fall of new hopes for solution |
| Lenka Peťková | 06.11.2008
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The Mediterranean island of Cyprus is standing on a crossroad. Many believe the year of 2008 is a crucial milestone in determining the future of the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots. These bold expectations are underpinned in the good news that after four years of deadlock, negotiations between the two communities were kicked off once again. Both leaders, i.e. the newly elected Greek Cypriot president Demetris Christofias as well as the Turkish Cypriot president Mehmet Ali Talat have expressed their will to work towards a bi-zonal and bi-communal federation, i.e. to bring to life the idea of a unified island. However, there is also bad news. After five rounds of negotiations, the two sides have hardly moved on any of the persisting differences. Hence, despite the positive shift to start peace talks and even conduct some symbolical proximity steps...
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| The rivalry and cooperation between Israel and Russia in the field of armament industry |
| Katarína Mózová | 23.10.2008
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Both, the Russia Federation as well as Israel, are countries with developed armament industry and defence sector. For Israel, which has been dominating the world rankings of arms expenditures per capita for a long time, it is, as its representatives declare, a question of survival in the region where its existence is often perceived by the neighbours with animosity or overt hostility. In the Russian Federation, armament industry, as one of few branches inherited from the Cold War era, has managed to retain its importance with high and still growing share in export and GDP generation. With the exception of countries like the US and Israel, top weapon and defence system producers don't usually collaborate between each other. On the contrary, their mutual relations may be labelled as competitive and often tense. This holds true also in the case...
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| The affair around Syrian nuclear program |
| Katarína Mózová | 22.09.2008
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Syria has registered a very positive development in the field of international politics in the last months. After signing the Agreement of Doha between Lebanese antisyrian coalition and prosyrian opposition forces, France as the presidency country of the European Union showed an effort for reinforcing political and - as it was shown later - also economic relationships with Damascus, which can also be demonstrated by the successive meetings of Presidents of both countries in July and September. At the same time, Damascus has led an official indirect peace talks with the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert through Turkey for several months. At the end of August, the accusation of the current Syrian President Bashar Assad by the former President Abdul Halim Khaddam, living in exile now, turned out to be false...
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| Will the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) succeed in multipolarisation? |
| Tigran Aleksanyan | 27.08.2008
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On 2nd August, 2008, expired the two week term during which Iran was supposed to respond to the offer of western powers, namely Germany and five permanent members of the UN Security Council, i.e. the United Kingdom, China, France, the Russian Federation and China. In terms of the offer Iran was submitted proposals concerning the acquisition of diverse advantages in the field of civil power engineering, trade, finance, agriculture and technology which were put forward by French European Union presidency. The condition was the compliance with the request to freeze disputable uranium enrichment. Teheran stated in its reaction that it would accept any requests to negotiate about its controversial nuclear program. However, it would insist on its rights and would not budge an inch. Nevertheless, on 6th August, 2008, the six world powers agreed...
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