Within two months Turkey’s agenda has been sliding between hunger strikes and the possibility of abolishing immunity rights of Kurdish Parliamentarians in the TGNA, restarting negotiations with ‘Imralı’ and the probability of sabotaging the negotiation process, shocking news of 3 PKK militant murders in France and protecting prudence at the funerals of Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan, and Leyla Söylemez in Diyarbakır.
The spring weather and tension coexist together throughout the country within the insecure atmosphere of mutual distrust. Speculations flow in the air: while ‘Kandil’ accuses the ‘deep’ state in murdering three PKK members, representatives of the government comment on the killings as an inner execution within the PKK. At the international level, on the other hand, foreign actors like Iran, Syria, France and Germany are included as suspects of the murders too. According to commentators, Iran as a country who may desire to undermine the peaceful talks between the Turkish state and the Kurds would have been an option that assassinated the PKK militants while Syria and France may become other suspects as the countries of money trafficking regulators of the PKK. Germany, on the other hand, is a country in this network that has always efficient intelligence activities connected to Turkey.
In this highly complicated and conspiracy smelling atmosphere, Turkey’s relations with the EU and the US are delicate. Two important consequences of murders in Paris may emerge with regard to Turkey’s foreign relations. First of all, the negotiation process with the EU may be suspended permanently although it also seems they enjoy spring season after the EU Presidency is undertaken by Ireland from the Southern Cyprus and Sarkozy replaced by Hollande in the last Presidential election of France. Second, America may want Turkey to be the focus of the Kurdish issue rather than the Northern Iraq for a while as it wants to do fine-tuning in overall Iraq.
Following the murders in France an invisible crisis took place between the Turkish and French intelligence services. This has been reflected in the statements of the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who accused the French President Hollande to be in dialogue with the members of a terrorist organization. In fact, Erdogan’s statement was signaling more serious problem than being in dialogue with PKK members. The real problem was the lack of sharing data between French and Turkish intelligence services on the murders. Markus Bernath who is a columnist in Der Standard, an Austrian newspaper, commented on the recent crisis as a new bitterness between France and Turkey.
According to Berbath, Turkish-French relations are endangered once more after the Armenian issue as the first serious one. In fact, the relations have only recently stepped into a hopeful phase when France used the wording of ‘accession’ related to Turkey in the last EU Foreign Affairs Ministers meeting.
This has opened a new page in the process. However, for Bernath, the last event took place in France may give the Elycée Palace the opportunity to continue its blockages on the regional, monetary, and economic issues in the Turkey’s negotiation process with the EU.
Read more: Turkey's ties with EU and US in light of murders in France | News Analysis | World Bulletin
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