Turkey Wishes to Appear as EU Ally and European Diplomacy Weapon

PanARMENIAN.Net - "Sending of Turkish peacekeepers to Lebanon is by no means a growth of Ankara's imperial pretensions, though some forces in Armenia think so," head of the department of international relations at the institute of political and military analysis Sergey Markedonov told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. In his words, Recep Tayyip Erdogan despite his "stormy Islamic youth" has staked on Turkey's Europeanazation and its accession to the EU.



"However presently Europe demonstrates the whole world its fear to participate in the peacekeeping operation. In this situation Turks wish to appear as EU's ally and even a weapon of European diplomacy. For Israel a move of the kind made by Turkey's is quite admissible, since Turkey has been an ally to the Jewish state for many years," he remarked. However the Russian political scientist considers that the Tel Aviv-Israel relations has considerably cooled over the situation in Iraq.



"Anyway Turkey is a more favorable "peacekeeper" for Israel. Thus, Ankara on one hand aspires for Europe and is ready to demonstrate its loyalty towards the EU. On the other hand this operation will become a test for relations with Israel. Third, this goal will not be publicly announced in Turkey, since many Turks feel sympathy for Hezbollah. Thus Turkish military should know how to behave in the radical Islamist world. With this move Turkey will acquire a good notion of the situation in Lebanon, Helbollah's relations with Iran and Iran's intentions," Markedonov said.