THE COMMON FOREIGN AND SECURITY POLICY OF THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE ADVANTAGES IT PROVIDES FOR GREECE IN HER PROBLEMS WITH TURKEY
Abstract
It is clear that Europeans pass through a hard process that is hoped to end with the materialization of a grandiose project like the United States of Europe, with the words of Monnet. So far they have managed to flesh out the economic aspect of this courageous scheme and they claim that the next is the integration of the dispersed national interests of the EU members in the same pot and the ‘conduction of the foreign policy of the Europeans’ from the European capital. Ironically, the notion of common interest of all the Europeans is the very arena where the independent national interest perceptions of the individual states clash with each other. It is obvious that the great powers see the EU as a means to sustain their prestige in the global affairs whereas the smaller states are aware for the fact that integrated body of politics within EU provides them with a disproportional right to say in the global level. However, up today the practices have belied the member states who are very optimistic and hopeful for the robust European solidarity in the face of the matters disturbing them, particularly like Greece and as in the case of the Republic Macedonia. On the other hand, last steps of the EU in the field of common foreign and security as in the Amsterdam Treaty urges us to handle seriously the issue of possible implications that the European cooperation in common foreign policy may create over the protracted conflicts between Greece and Turkey. In this article, I aim at depicting to what extend the marching process of the European cooperation in the foreign policy and security matters may place Turkey into position of a belligerent to a conflict not only with Greece but also with EU itself. In the same context, I evaluate the shortcomings of the EU integration, WEU’s location in the European cooperation in defense matters and some unchangeable harsh realities like nationalism and state sovereignty.
Keywords
THE COMMON FOREIGN AND SECURITY POLICY OF THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE ADVANTAGES IT PROVIDES FOR GREECE IN HER PROBLEMS WITH TURKEY
Abstract
It is clear that Europeans pass through a hard process that is hoped to end with the materialization of a grandiose project like the United States of Europe, with the words of Monnet. So far they have managed to flesh out the economic aspect of this courageous scheme and they claim that the next is the integration of the dispersed national interests of the EU members in the same pot and the ‘conduction of the foreign policy of the Europeans’ from the European capital. Ironically, the notion of common interest of all the Europeans is the very arena where the independent national interest perceptions of the individual states clash with each other. It is obvious that the great powers see the EU as a means to sustain their prestige in the global affairs whereas the smaller states are aware for the fact that integrated body of politics within EU provides them with a disproportional right to say in the global level. However, up today the practices have belied the member states who are very optimistic and hopeful for the robust European solidarity in the face of the matters disturbing them, particularly like Greece and as in the case of the Republic Macedonia. On the other hand, last steps of the EU in the field of common foreign and security as in the Amsterdam Treaty urges us to handle seriously the issue of possible implications that the European cooperation in common foreign policy may create over the protracted conflicts between Greece and Turkey. In this article, I aim at depicting to what extend the marching process of the European cooperation in the foreign policy and security matters may place Turkey into position of a belligerent to a conflict not only with Greece but also with EU itself. In the same context, I evaluate the shortcomings of the EU integration, WEU’s location in the European cooperation in defense matters and some unchangeable harsh realities like nationalism and state sovereignty.
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