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Greece and Turkey: Moving Beyond The Rapprochement Process

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The visit by the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, to Ankara and Istanbul on 5-6 February was remarkable for a number of reasons. There was no spectacular breakthrough announced; in fact, a recognition of the status quo was the best that could be expected. Yet, the visit was important because it reflects both the complexities of the bilateral relationship between Greece and Turkey as well as a recognition that its content is shaped by a number of factors that are not necessarily of a bilateral nature. Let us put everything into context. We find ourselves in the midst of the 20 th year of the rapprochement process between the two countries. This is a process that began after a period of heightened animosity and tensions in September 1999 on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York when George Papandreou and Ismail Cem, the respective foreign ministers of Greece and Turkey at the time, decided to stress strengthened economi...
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Redrawing the Social Contract

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When the angry twenty-four-year-old who tells me that the Social Contract between the state and its citizens is broken, is my son, I take notice and listen. Alejandro is an angry young man representative of many of his generation. He is well educated and travelled, he speaks many foreign languages yet insecurity pervades as to what the world has in store for him and his generation as job security becomes more scarce, as stable political systems try to reinvent themselves to cope with growing governance issues, and as mass protests have become the norm across Europe. He also represents the epitome of European integration and its emphasis on diversity. On the other hand, with a Greek father and a Spanish mother, his two countries have been among the most severely hit by the decade-long economic crisis with the highest rates of youth unemployment in the EU, standing at nearly 40% in Greece and 33% in Spain as per July 2018. The ongoing “yellow vests” protests in France are...
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Juncker's 2025 Vision for Europe

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With his State of the European Union speech today at the European Parliament, Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, has sought to remind us all of the indispensable role of the European Commission as the unifier and pacifier of the European project. It was a remarkable speech that was quite visionary in some of the proposals that Juncker made.  He sought simultaneously to put the accent on the European construct by stating his intention to defend his office and be part of the triumvirate together with Merkel and Macron that will lead to process of transformation (in other words, he sends the message that Merkel and Macron cannot and should not lead alone). His “all together” approach is bound to win him friends among the small and very small states that comprise the the bulk of the Union's member states that are concerned by the multispeed preferences of some of the bigger states. He also reminds small states that the attempts by some of them to disr...
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Time for Closure in Cyprus: Keeping the Faith

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With the start of the new round of talks in Crans Montana on 28 June regarding the future of Cyprus, all the bets are on as to whether these will lead to a deal or be another part in a long process of reconciliation but not enough to cross the finish line. Although the momentum that was evident at the beginning of the year has significantly stalled, the United Nations through its good offices has managed to get the leaders of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities, the representatives of the three guarantor powers – Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, and the representative of the interested party – the European Union, to return to the negotiating table. The stakes are a historic deal in the making and the implications of a non-deal should the talks fail to yield positive results with the chances evenly divided for either outcome to prevail.   The optimistic scenario stems from the fact that the leaders of the two communities – Nicos Anastasiades and Mustafa Aki...
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