Hazar Raporu - Issue 01 - Fall 2012

INTERVIEW
In what way do you think US can help
Turkey to resolve its Kurdish problem
and to combat against PKK
The US has already done a lot in terms of
helping to combat against PKK. The biggest
thing is to Turkey itself try to resolve the
problem. And here I would just emphasize
the problem with the Kurds is a political,
social and economic problem and it is hard.
Therefore, you cannot be solve by military
means alone. It requires a much broader
program and reforms which will involve
social, political and economic measures.
Simply intensifying attacks against PKK
will not be able to do it. This is especially
obviously become more critical with the
situation in Syria. If Turkey had taken the
steps, of course the Erdoğan government had
taken some steps, situation would be in a
better shape to manage it.
How would you evaluate US policy
towards Black Sea region, particularly
Georgia and Ukraine given their
aspirations to join NATO
I think the door still open for membership
to Ukraine and Georgia. But realistically
speaking those issues have been put on whole
one. Because the situation in Ukraine has
significantly deteriorated politically since the
February 2010 when President Yanukovich
was elected. And as far as is Georgia
considered, there is a lot of work that still
needs to be done on military reform. This
is an issue it has been put on whole doors
still open but not much is likely to happen.
Because there is no consensus in NATO now
for trying to expand NATO especially as
long as the situation in Ukraine continues to
deteriorate.
The presidential elections in the US
is coming. Do you think there will be
substantial change in US foreign policy
if incumbent candidate loses or gets
another presidential term
It’s very hard to say, I would say we will
not see a substantial change if the president
Obama gets elected and I think his
chances actually better than the Romney’s
. For Romney it is very hard to say, If he
implements the policy that he has said he will
implement than he will have lot of problems I
think. Difficulties with Romney’s whether he
believes what he says if he believes it I think
rather going to be a difficult time. Because he
seems to taken the advices that are from the
neo-conservative side. However, in many ways
it’s really hard to say he really believes what
he says, whether he is just saying that for
political reasons. So, we have to wait and see
what happens if he is elected. But certainly his
speeches do not give cause for enthusiasm.
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