Hurriyet Daily News published an article by Serkan Demirtas headlined "Turkey, EU adopting a new language."
"Three weeks after he revealed Turkey’s new EU strategy, EU Minister Volkan Bozkır was again in Brussels on Oct. 16 and 17 to announce the new EU Communication Strategy and to hold talks with senior EU officials. His visit to Brussels came nearly a week after the Commission issued Turkey’s annual “progress report,” which he has described as "objective and balanced," the article begins.
"Bozkır’s meetings with the EU’s outgoing Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Füle, as well as other commissioners and members of the European Parliament, are being seen as the launch of a new language between the two sides. Bozkır made this clear in his address to the foreign committee of the European Parliament, which Greeks and Greek Cypriots - as well as other Turkey-skeptic parliament members - have long used as a platform to attack Turkey," Demirtas writes.
"An experienced diplomat who has spent years dealing with EU affairs, Bozkır underlined that he will impose a new understanding in his communication with his European counterparts. Listening to each other, respecting criticisms and creating a mutual understanding will be the main pillars of this new approach, he said, stressing that "I’ll be doing my best to impose this atmosphere and not to have a damaging style," the article reads.
According to the author of the article, unlike some other Turkish politicians Bozkır "was very tolerant in responding to strong-worded criticisms and questions from the group at the parliament, and at the same time he was brave enough to confess that banning Twitter was not right." "He made this remark during his address to the Carnegie Endowment late on October 16," Demirtas writes.
"Among other issues that members of the European Parliament raised were the Turkish government’s impositions to curb judicial independence, to undermine the principle of the separation of powers, and to restrict freedom of the press and expression," the article reports.
"The European Parliament’s new Turkey rapporteur, Kati Piri, was quite open in announcing that before she pens her own report she will closely monitor developments in two specific areas in Turkey: Judicial independence and freedom of expression. Piri recalled that the progress report issued by the Commission expressed serious concerns on these two specific issues, and reiterated that opening chapters 23 and 24, on the judiciary and fundamental rights, would be very helpful in accelerating the accession process," the author writes.
"The European Commission sincerely expects the Turkish government to ask for advice on the drafted law before enacting it. The government’s sincerity in asking for the Commission’s cooperation on such critical issues, and the Commission’s genuineness in responding to such appeals in an objective way, will stand as a test for both sides. Passing this test successfully will surely serve the interests of both sides and the citizens of the EU and Turkey," the author concludes.
The Guardian published an article by Lizzy Davies entitled "Putin under pressure to commit to fragile peace plan for eastern Ukraine."
"Russia must act to fully comply with the peace plan for eastern Ukraine and EU sanctions will remain in place until he does, David Cameron has said after a meeting with Vladimir Putin and other EU leaders in Milan," the article begins.
"In an encounter that had been considered a chance for Moscow to pursue dialogue with Kiev and major EU powers, the Russian president attended a breakfast with Petro Poroshenko, the president of Ukraine, alongside the leaders of Britain, Germany, France, Italy and top EU officials," the author writes.
“It was a positive meeting because it was with both the president of Russia and the president of Ukraine and Vladimir Putin said very clearly that he doesn’t want a frozen conflict; he doesn’t want a divided Ukraine,” Prime Minister Cameron is quoted by the newspaper as saying.
"There were mixed messages from Russia, with Putin initially telling reporters that the meeting was positive, and a Kremlin spokesman later saying that “certain participants” had taken an “absolutely biased, non-flexible, non-diplomatic” approach to Ukraine," Davies notes.
"With violence continuing to flare in some parts of eastern Ukraine despite a ceasefire between Kiev’s forces and separatist rebels – and urgency growing around an ongoing gas supply dispute – the spotlight at a summit of Asian and European leaders (ASEM) is firmly on Putin," the article reads.
"In an apparent gesture of cooperation at the weekend, Putin ordered more than 17,000 Russian troops to pull back from positions near the border. The Kremlin said he and Poroshenko had discussed ways of easing the simmering conflict in a phone call on Tuesday," the article reads.
"But in recent days his rhetoric has not appeared that of the emollient peacemaker. On Wednesday, he used an interview with the Serbian newspaper Politika to warn western leaders of "what discord between large nuclear powers can do to strategic stability," the author writes.
