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CONTENTS:
       • Turkey Reiterates Demands to Israel Following Secret Talks
       • Clinton Urges Turkey to Revive Stalled Armenian Rapprochement Process
       • Iran Says Nuclear Talks to Resume with Turkey, Brazil
       • Obama Nominates Ricciardone as New Envoy to Turkey
       • Mullen Says Sustaining Turkey-US Ties Critical
       • EU Opens New Accession Chapter with Turkey

Turkey Reiterates Demands to Israel Following Secret Talks
 
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has made clear that Israel has only two options in preventing a complete break-off in bilateral ties with Turkey following the Mavi Marmara incident on May 31. One remains offering an official apology to Turkey and the other is consenting to an international investigation into the raid. "The recovery of relations is not possible as long as Israel doesn't apologize. They listened to our demands and said they would convey them to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu," Davutoğlu said late on Saturday, referring to his secret meeting with Israeli Industry, Trade, and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer which took place in Brussels last Wednesday.

"We haven't set a deadline for the response. We're waiting. If [Israel] will not apologize, then it should accept an international commission and accede to its findings... There are three options ahead: it will either apologize or it will consent to a study by an international commission or the relations will break off," he explained. "We have been following the studies of the fact-finding mission at [the] UN; we will set a calendar accordingly," said Davutoğlu, referring to the fact that the UN Human Rights Council, on June 18, decided to send a fact-finding mission "to investigate violations of international law resulting from Israeli attacks on the flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian assistance." The Turkish Foreign Minister continued, "[The] Americans are trying to give the commission established by Israel a chance. We are objecting principally." When reminded of efforts by the US to contribute to the mending of bilateral relations between Israel and Turkey, Davutoğlu said: "We want to give a chance to those parties who attach importance to the recovery of relations. The meeting between Obama and Netanyahu on July 7 will be important regarding the process."

While welcoming the meeting between Davutoğlu and Ben-Eliezer, the US State Department stated last Wednesday that US officials have spoken with each country about their relationship, without elaborating on American involvement. The talks in Brussels came just days before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington for a meeting with US President Barack Obama. As of Friday, Netanyahu said Israel could not apologize for the raid, but stressed that he wanted to avoid further harm in relations with Ankara. "Israel cannot apologize that its soldiers were forced to defend themselves against a mob that almost butchered them; they defended themselves from a lynch. We regret the loss of life," explained Netanyahu . US State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said on Thursday that he anticipated Netanyahu would give Obama "a report on the early stages of the Israeli investigation into the flotilla tragedy" and that the two would discuss "recent progress" on the Gaza Strip. /Today's Zaman/

Clinton Urges Turkey to Revive Stalled Armenian Rapprochement Process
 
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday praised the Armenian government for its willingness to move toward normalization with Turkey and suggested that the ball was in Turkey's court to revitalize the rapprochement process while urging Ankara to overcome its reluctance to reopen the border between the two countries, closed in 1993 due to the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. Yet Ankara took exception, arguing that the process was largely stalled due to the domestic policy concerns of the Armenian administration. Turkish officials also reiterated that a partial normalization in the Caucasus is not sustainable if the parties don't work for complete normalization.
 
Clinton's remarks came on a weekend visit to Armenia, on a regional tour including Azerbaijan, and she delivered identical messages in both countries: Washington will do its part to help end the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between the two countries, violence serves no one, and a resolution would bring prosperity and stability to the Caucasus. "We urge Turkey to take the steps that it promised to take and that both sides continue to try to find the opportunity to open the door to reconciliation and normalization," Clinton told reporters in Yerevan after talks with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. When asked about Clinton's remarks, Turkish Foregin Ministry spokesman Burak Ozugergin responded: "Partial solutions to regional problems will bring neither peace, stability nor a sustainable resolution in the long-term." /Turkish Press Review/

Iran Says Nuclear Talks to Resume with Turkey, Brazil
 
Iran stated on Tuesday it would soon resume nuclear talks with Turkey and Brazil -- a tentative first step back to international negotiations after Tehran was hit with a new wave of sanctions over its disputed nuclear program. Iran has belittled the U.N., U.S. and European sanctions and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday he would return to long-frozen talks with world powers on certain conditions only, and not before the end of August. His foreign minister said talks would start before then with the two countries with which Iran agreed a nuclear fuel swap deal in May and which voted against the U.N. sanctions. "There were some contacts with the foreign ministers of the three countries [Iran, Turkey, and Brazil]," Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference. "A joint meeting is on the agenda and we will announce it in the coming one or two days."

Iran has held no substantive talks with world powers since the deal in principle on the fuel swap struck with Russia, France, and the United States in October. The pact would have seen Iran sending 1.2 tons of low-enriched uranium (LEU) -- about 70 percent of its stockpile at the time -- abroad in exchange for specially processed fuel rods needed to keep the Tehran medical research reactor running. Iran agreed in talks in May with Brazil and Turkey to part with 1.2 tons of LEU, but by then Iran's LEU reserve had doubled in size, devaluing the swap's terms in Western eyes since it would no longer divest Iran of enough LEU to prevent its use for an atomic bomb, if refined to high purity.

Ahmadinejad has called on the major powers to "clarify" three things before talks could resume: their attitude to Israel's alleged nuclear arsenal, their stance on commitments to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and whether they come to the table as Iran's friend or its enemy. World powers were likely to dismiss such conditions as irrelevant to the main issue: Iran's refusal to negotiate limits and transparency with respect to its nuclear activity. "Somehow implying there's a linkage between the Iranian issue and the Israeli issue ... will certainly not make life easier," said a Western diplomat versed in the Iran issue. "Saying that as a punishment that they only want talks in the third week of August -- this is posturing which we shouldn't take too seriously ... We need to wait for Iran's official response on the [swap] plan and the offer of talks from the EU." /Sabah/

Obama Nominates Ricciardone as New Envoy to Turkey
 
US President Barack Obama has nominated Francis J. Ricciardone as the country's new ambassador to Turkey, the White House announced on Thursday. Ricciardone will assume his post, to be vacated by outgoing Ambassador James Jeffrey, after his nomination is confirmed by the US Senate. Jeffrey, the US ambassador in Ankara since December 2008, was recently nominated as the new US envoy to Iraq and is expected to leave Ankara in the next few weeks. He will replace Christopher Hill, who began serving as ambassador in Baghdad in April 2009.

Ricciardone has served as deputy ambassador and chargé d'affaires at the US Embassy in Afghanistan since 2009. According to a White House biography, he also served as ambassador to Egypt until 2008 and earlier as ambassador to the Philippines and Palau. But Ricciardone is no stranger to Turkey. He began his career in Ankara and Adana and served twice again in Turkey: as political advisor to the US and Turkish commanders of Operation Provide Comfort at İncirlik Air Base and as deputy chief of mission in Ankara. He led the transition to an organization of the US Embassy in Baghdad in 2004, and the Department of State's task force in response to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He served as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's special representative for the transition of Iraq from 1999-2001. /Today's Zaman/

Mullen Says Sustaining Turkey-US Ties Critical
 
Stressing that Turkey has been "a critical ally" of the United States for a long time, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has stated that sustaining this relationship in the long term is also "critical," although the relationship has recently been going through a bumpy process. "And the other hugely important relationship in that part of the world, which has certainly been very visible lately, is Turkey," US Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Monday at the Aspen Institute's Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.

Mullen was actually responding to a question on US-Israeli relations when he raised the issue of Turkey-US relations on his own initiative. "They're a critical ally. They've been a critical ally for a long time. They're a member of NATO. And so -- and I have a very strong relationship with my counterpart [Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Basbuğ], very strong relationship throughout the military with Turkey -- all of our services do. And this is a bumpy time, and we just need to make, from my perspective, sustaining that in the long run is really critical. ... Relationships go through ups and downs, but the overall long-term importance of those two relationships, from my perspective, are [sic] critical," Mullen stated.

Following these comments, Mullen was asked whether he believed that "Turkey feels rejected by Europe and is moving back toward the Muslim world" and whether he believed that Turkey is "on a brief dalliance and will be back in NATO as a full partner." Mullen responded, "I don't know. That's up to, obviously, Prime Minister Erdoğan and the political leadership, and quite frankly, the people of Turkey to, in a sense, both develop and execute. I just want to -- we've had a very strong relationship for a long, long time. And I think whatever the breaches are, we need to work our way through that and sustain that relationship. They're a member of a critical alliance for us, with NATO. And they also reside, physically, in a very, very important part, strategically. So I actually -- exactly where they're going, it's a little bit difficult for me to figure out," Mullen responded. /Today's Zaman/

EU Opens New Accession Chapter with Turkey
 
Amid growing concerns about the direction of stalled European Union accession negotiations with Turkey, Spain, a staunch supporter of Turkey's bid to join the bloc, was able to deliver the opening of one chapter Wednesday, the last day of its six-month rotating EU presidency before handing the reins to Belgium. Top officials and bureaucrats from the EU and Turkey met in Brussels at an intergovernmental conference marking the opening of the EU chapter on food safety and veterinary standards. The critical move comes at a time when Turkey's ties with the West are being questioned and follows accusations from the US that the EU is pushing Turkey away. The opening of one more chapter in the negotiations process signals two things: that the EU wants to firmly anchor Turkey to the bloc and that the Turkish side is still willing to continue on the EU path.
 
"Turkey has completed all the technical criteria and Parliament has passed all the necessary laws," said Turkey's top EU talks negotiator Egemen Bagis en route to Brussels yesterday. "It was about time we heard positive news from the EU side." It took three years for the EU to open the chapter on food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary policy after the screening process was completed in 2007. Agriculture and Rural Affairs Mehmet Eker, who accompanied Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu along with Bagis to the ceremony in Brussels, explained that Turkey had taken speedy steps to harmonize Turkish agricultural legislation with that of the EU. Parliament passed the Food Safety Law earlier this month after long debate. Bagis also strongly criticized some EU member states for proposing resolution of the Cyprus problem as a requirement for opening new chapters. "Why wasn't this issue an obstacle for Greece or the UK, as both countries have troops on the island as guarantor states?" he asked. "How did the Greek Cypriots join the EU after they rejected the 2004 UN-sponsored plan which was accepted by the Turks in the north?" /Turkish Press Review/