Παγκόσμιες Μεταβολές και η Ανατολή στην Κυπριακή Εξωτερική Πολιτική

Πηγή: http://www.lahistoriaconmapas.com/

Κατά τα τελευταία δέκα χρόνια περίπου η εξωτερική πολιτική της Κύπρου και πιο συγκεκριμένα της Κυπριακής Δημοκρατίας, έχει βελτιωθεί σημαντικά όπως φαίνεται από το γεγονός ότι έχει αρχίσει, παρά τα κάποια συνεχιζόμενα προβλήματα και διλήμματα, να συνειδητοποιεί και να αξιοποιεί το γεωστρατηγικό ρόλο του νησιού. Σε αυτή την αναδυόμενη πραγματικότητα συνέβαλαν τρεις βασικοί παράγοντες: i) η ωρίμανσητης πολιτικής ελίτ της χώρας, ii) η αυξανόμενη τάση αυτοεπιβεβαίωσης της Τουρκίας και η αποσταθεροποιητική εξωτερική της πολιτική, η οποίαο δήγησε σε πολλαπλά διπλωματικά και στρατηγικά αδιέξοδα, και iii) η οριοθέτηση της θαλάσσιας Αποκλειστικής Οικονομικής Ζώνης της Κύπρου με την Αίγυπτο, το Λίβανο και το Ισραήλ και η ανακάλυψη υδρογονανθράκων εντός της.   Continue reading

Comment on Turkey’s Elections

Source: Reuters

Below you may find brief comments on Turkey’s elections that I provided to a Turkish news agency in the form of an interview after their own request; the answers were accepted for publication but then censored and eventually not published. Simply because they describe President Erdogan’s policies as authoritarian. The same thing happened to me last year, from a different Turkish news agency, with regard to Turkey’s policy vis-a-vis the so-called “Islamic State” in Iraq and the crisis with the Turkish hostages. Continue reading

Global Shifts and the East in Cyprus’ Foreign Policy

Over the past ten years or so the foreign policy of Cyprus, more specifically the Republic of Cyprus, has improved significantly in that it has started, despite some persisting problems and dilemmas, to realize and utilize the island’s geostrategic role. To this emerging reality contributed three main factors: i) the maturing of the country’s political elites; ii) Turkey’s increasing self-aggrandizement and destabilizing foreign policy which led it to multiple diplomatic and strategic dead-ends; and iii) Cyprus’ delimitation of its maritime Exclusive Economic Zone with Egypt, Lebanon and Israel and the discovery of hydrocarbons within it. Continue reading

Assessing ISIS one Year Later

Source: Reuters

A year ago the world witnessed the swift advances of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria. Though the emergence of the group was somewhat expected for those who have been following the regional developments of the past years it caught most of the world by surprise. At the same time, its brutal tactics,military victories, resilience, evolution and extreme ideology have led many to characterize it as the greatest regional and international security threat at the moment or the most dangerous Islamist threat contemporary history has seen. Continue reading

Turkey and Saudis in Syria: Aligned Interests, Clashing Revisionisms

Source: Reuters

In early May, 2015 it became known that Saudi Arabia and Turkey are supporting extremist Islamist groups in Syria against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. That Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, among others, have – mostly indirectly – been supporting Islamist groups is not news as similar reports have been emerging from time to time since 2011, if not earlier. But this policy with regard to the Syrian conflict became increasingly overt amidst growing instability and lack of Western commitment to Assad’s overthrow. According to The Independent and other media, Turkish and Saudi support focuses on the overarching jihadist group Jaish al-Fatah which includes al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra – a rival to both Assad and the self-styled “Islamic State,” also known as ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham). Continue reading