Reflections TURKEY, as we noted in our previous issue, has been following closely the national and regional policy ramifications of the crisis th at has been deepening Syria. Our projections that the Syrian Crisis would transform into a prolonged, costly and painful process appears to be holding so far and the manner in which Turkey has been anxiously becoming a party to the crisis is emerging as an increasingly destabilizing force in the region. Turkey’s overt position to support the rebel groups that have organized under the Free Syrian Army and its policy preference to address the Crisis along ethnic and religious secterian lines shall surely result in long-standing, deeply-rooted socio-political grieviences and transborder conflicts in the region for many years to come.
We realize that Turkey would view its role in this Crisis as a balancing force against Iran’s several years of engagement in the region. Yet, that still fails to justify, in any rational way, the dramatic shift in nearly a century-long fundamental founding policy of the Republic regarding respect and non-intervention in neighbours’ internal affairs. With this issue of Reflections TURKEY, we look at the Syrian Question from several angles to get a sound and realistic understanding of the policy issues involved.
Reflections TURKEY, in its December 2012 issue, is also addressing a number of fundamental social and economic issues that underlie political developments in the country. We believe the EU accession process that has been recently comprimised to regional and local political agenda should still constitute one of the main, long-term pillars of the country’s quest for development and prosperity. Therefore, we shall keep our focus on the methods and instruments to be employed in the resolution of the financial and economic bottlenecks in Eurozone and their implications on issues of employment, new investments, budgetary discipline, growth and development in Turkey.
Last but not the least, we at Reflections TURKEY are preparing to take our publication to a new institutional platform that would expand our reach to a wider community of academic people and policy professionals. We believe systematic contributions by a panel of distinguished professionals would enrich and enhance the outcome of our work here. We also believe that the new institutional framework of Reflections TURKEY would serve a more effective and comprehensive medium to convey to the reader a sound selection of alternative perspectives on Turkish affairs in his/her understanding of the developments in the country and the region in general. We shall be keeping you posted on the next steps regarding our new organization in the weeks ahead.