Greece and Turkey: From Enmity to Rapprochement

JAMES KER-LINDSAY

James Ker-Lindsay is executive director of the Cyprus-based consultancy, Civilitas Research, and an associate fellow of the Royal United Services Institute.

Greek–Turkish Relations in the Era of Globalization
edited by dimitris keridis and dimitrios triantaphyllou
London, Brassey’s, 2001. 238 pages
Paperback: US $22.95

Based on a conference organised by the Kokkalis Foundation, the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (Eliamep), and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Greek–Turkish Relations in the Era of Globalization is an attempt to look at relations between Athens and Ankara in the light of wider international trends. The editors claim that they have tried to be as multidisciplinary in their approach as possible and draw on comparative politics, historical sociology and other fields from the social sciences. However, whether this amounts to a study of Greek–Turkish relations as they are affected by globalisation is questionable.

Since the spring of 1999, Greek–Turkish relations have undergone a significant, some would say profound, change. Following the capture and arrest of the Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan as he departed from the Greek embassy in Nairobi, relations between Athens and Ankara sank to their lowest level since the summer of 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied northern Cyprus following a short-lived coup instigated by the military junta then ruling Greece. However, in the months that followed Ocalan’s arrest a series of events led to a re-evaluation of bilateral relations.

Perhaps the single most important development was the appointment of George Papandreou as Greece’s foreign minister following the resignation of Theodoros Pangalos in the aftermath of the Ocalan affair. Working closely with Yiannos Kranidiotis, the Cypriot-born deputy foreign minister of Greece, Papandreou formulated a new perspective on how Greek–Turkish relations should be managed in the context of increasing European integration. They abandoned Greece’s previous approach of using the European Union as a counterbalance to Turkey’s military strength. Instead, they favoured a policy of communicating EU ideals to Turkey, best achieved not by standing in the way of Turkey’s EU accession, but by actively promoting it. Papandreou and Kranidiotis calculated that encouraging Turkey’s EU hopes would cause Ankara to appreciate that EU membership means adopting new patterns of interaction based on mutual tolerance and economic interdependence, rather than the old ways of ethnic division and military threats.

The catalyst for the implementation of this new approach was NATO’s military intervention in Kosovo, launched in March 1999. Greece and Turkey were united in opposition as both feared the consequences of the campaign. This understanding opened the way for the establishment of a more formal dialogue in July of that year. The decision was aided by the presence in Ankara of a senior government minister who was also concerned to find new ways of looking at bilateral relations between Greece and Turkey. Thus, while it was certainly the case that Greece acted as the progenitor of the approach, it would be an injustice not to mention the important part played by Ismail Cem, the Turkish foreign minister. While his role has perhaps been overstated in certain quarters, and he blew hot and cold at various times, there can be little doubt that his presiding at the foreign ministry ensured a more receptive ear to Greek overtures than would otherwise have been expected.

The process was then given an enormous boost in August and September 1999 when two huge earthquakes struck the region. The immediate and massive Greek humanitarian response to the disaster that befell the Turkish city of Izmit alerted the people of both countries to the fact that relations between them could be strengthened and redefined. This was followed, in December 1999, by the momentous decision of Greece to lift its long-standing veto on Turkey’s candidacy for EU membership.

The first part of the book examines domestic Greek and Turkish politics. The main aim is to show how the internal political situation in both countries is being changed by international trends, and how this affects bilateral relations. The first contribution, by Dimitris Keridis, looks at Greece and is an accurate and interesting account of the way in which new thinking is permeating Greek society. As he notes, such thinking is also being reflected in terms of foreign policy, and he emphasises that lessons were learned from the Macedonia name-dispute of the early 1990s, when Greece found itself rebuked by its EU partners for its petty-minded and vindictive treatment of its neighbour. The Turkish situation is explored by Gareth Jenkins. In an excellent overview, he shows just how complex Turkish domestic politics really are, being composed of a multitude of issues that complicate how any single one can be addressed. These two essays are perhaps the closest the book comes to living up to its title. Both writers do shed light on how Greece and Turkey are being shaped by wider developments and how the two countries are coming to terms with a changing international environment.

Unfortunately, the rest of the work offers nothing particularly groundbreaking as regards its titular theme. Part two surveys recent Greek–Turkish relations, and Dimitrios Triantaphyllou presents a solid account of the way in which Greece is increasingly redefining its diplomacy in multilateral terms. Part three of the book discusses the legal dimensions of the relationship. Its two contributions examine the complex international treaty issues that serve to divide Greece and Turkey. As might be expected, Cyprus features heavily in the work, with four chapters devoted to the divided island. All these contributions are interesting, but nonetheless fairly conventional in the way they deal with the Cyprus issue. The book’s final section looks at the Greek–Turkish relationship in the context of Western security. Here again, all the authors provide thought-provoking and valuable contributions.

However, the work imparts little feeling that the editors encouraged authors to push beyond the boundaries of conventional interstate discourse. Too much attention is paid to some factors, such as security, and not enough to the types of issue that define the era of globalised politics. For example, almost no attempt is made to examine the economic and commercial relationship between the two countries. The absence of any discussion of how business ties are likely to play an important role in determining the future course of bilateral relations is striking. Similarly ignored is the way in which disaster diplomacy, following the earthquake in Izmit, has informed government policies in Greece and Turkey.

Greece and Turkey are starting to define security in broader terms that allow a greater potential for co-operation, instead of the more usual pattern of conflict, yet this, too, is overlooked. It is all very well analysing disputes over Aegean territorial waters and islands, but what about the partnership that has developed to combat organised crime, terrorism, illegal immigration and drug smuggling? All these were issues that started the rapprochement ball rolling in the early summer of 1999.

Another issue that really should have received more attention is that of the European Union and its profound effect on the Athens–Ankara relationship. Although the editors acknowledge its importance, a whole section on the subject, rather than a single—albeit excellent—chapter by Kalypso Nicolaides, would have been welcome.

In sum, belying the promise of its title, the book does not seek to examine the whole range of issues that are changing the patterns of Greek–Turkish interaction in a globalised world. One is rather left with the feeling that the editors chose to use a vogue term—“globalisation”—to promote what is essentially a straightforward account of recent developments in the two countries’ bilateral relations.

This said, one must recognise the time at which the book was prepared. It draws on contributions made at conferences held in 2000, when there was still very much a wait-and-see attitude to where the process of rapprochement would go. Since then, relations have continued to improve and Turkey is moving ever closer to the European Union. The interconnections between non-state actors that so define the globalisation process have also grown. Yet even now we do not have a clear idea of how Greek–Turkish relations will develop. It is likely to be some time before a real evaluation can be written of how international factors have affected the underlying relationship between Greece and Turkey.