YUSUF KANLI

Tension building in eastern Mediterranean YUSUF KANLI

Tension building in eastern Mediterranean

It is an unfortunate reality that the waters of the eastern Mediterranean are heating up is indeed approaching fast to a boiling point. Tensions are increasing. All hopes for a resolution of the standoff between Turkey and Greece (as well as Greek Cypriots, France, Egypt and…) are almost exhausted. No one maintains the optimism of early August that there might be a resolution through dialogue.

September 02 2020
Time for bold steps on Cyprus, eastern Mediterranean, Turkey’s EU bid YUSUF KANLI

Time for bold steps on Cyprus, eastern Mediterranean, Turkey’s EU bid

No longer, there is just a Cyprus problem. It is not about how to share the hydrocarbon resources of the eastern Mediterranean, either. The problem is no longer limited to the acute Turcophobia (anti-Turkism) of some European politicians. Neither it is a new phase of the continued lack of sincerity in embracing Turkey nor Turkey’s part in conforming to the rules of the game required to accelerate the EU accession process. Talking of the identity problem based on enemy perception? It is there as well.

August 31 2020
Schuman declaration for eastern Mediterranean YUSUF KANLI

Schuman declaration for eastern Mediterranean

Former French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman was not the sole founding father of today’s European Union. Without Konrad Adenauer, Alcide de Gaspari, Jean Monnet, and many other visionary European politicians, businessmen and academics, it would have been impossible to transform the Europe of the 1940s, a continent devastated by war, to today’s Europe. Despite all the problems of a welfare state, it became an island of uninterrupted peace. Still, the declaration of May 9, 1950, in which Schuman proposed the creation of a European Coal and Steel Community, whose members would pool coal and steel production, was the birth certificate of the EU, and the day got marked several decades ago as the EU Day.

August 24 2020
France should be tamed… YUSUF KANLI

France should be tamed…

Very much like what Abraham Lincoln once said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time” France was told by Turkey to not stretch its head too much and poke its nose into everything.

August 19 2020
Dreadful situation YUSUF KANLI

Dreadful situation

We are all traveling from one hellish nightmare to another. The sense of scare some segments of the society feel while many people appear ignorant of the dreadful threat posed to every single individual on this planet, reflects an acute perceptional polarization.

August 17 2020
The Denktaş factor YUSUF KANLI

The Denktaş factor

Serdar Denktaş, the son of late Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktaş and the former leader of the Democrat Party (DP), called.

August 12 2020
Li Beirut, source of inspiration YUSUF KANLI

Li Beirut, source of inspiration

Have you ever listened to “Li Beirut” by Fairuz? Speaking of the times when Beirut became a source of inspiration.

August 10 2020
Is Turkey ‘fine-tuning’ Turkish Cyprus’ politics YUSUF KANLI

Is Turkey ‘fine-tuning’ Turkish Cyprus’ politics?

There were rampant speculations in North Cyprus this week that Turkey has started finetuning Turkish Cypriot politics ahead of the Oct. 11 scheduled presidential elections. It is no secret that Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akıncı and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have not been on good terms for a long period and that Ankara would prefer the incumbent be replaced with someone “who could work better” with Turkey.

August 05 2020
Public relations vs journalism YUSUF KANLI

Public relations vs journalism

There is often a claim that the readers or viewers of a media outlet actually are the owners of that newspaper, magazine, TV or radio. Can it be really so? Unfortunately, to deliver an affirmative answer, some extraordinary effort and the help of some drugs might be needed.

August 03 2020