ABSTRACT
In April 2011, while NATO’s bombing campaign against pro-Gaddafi targets in Libya was in full swing, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu engaged in a pointed exchange with his Czech counterpart, Karel Schwarzenberg, in Berlin over Turkey’s veto on Cyprus’ participation in NATO-EU meetings. Reportedly, the exchange was triggered by Davutoğlu’s remark that admitting Cyprus into the EU was a mistake. Schwarzenberg, in return, protested that the EU did not need to be lectured by others on its decisions and would not accept non-members’ interference in its affairs. In other words, Turkey should mind its own business. The transcript of this conversation that was published in (or leaked to) Hürriyet indicated that the Turkish Foreign Minister reacted very strongly to this exclusionary language Schwarzenberg used in a NATO meeting. In his reply, Davutoğlu used a narrative that represents a remarkable change in his conceptualization of Turkey’s place in the Western security community. He reminded his Czech counterpart that, ‘(W)e are a family here. We are one of the oldest members of this family. We were here when you were not’ (Hürriyet, 17 April 2011).1 The point that Davutoğlu was actually trying to make was that Turkey did not ever consider vetoing the admission of
Central and Eastern European countries to NATO, even in exchange for a promise of EU membership. However, he remained adamant that Ankara would not allow the Greek administration of the island Republic to sit around the table in what Turkey considers its home turf until the long-festering Cyprus problem was resolved.
