Mosul Vilayet: A pathway out of the Mid-Eastern gridlock by ANTON KELLER

Like the white peace dove that welcomed James Baker and Tarik Aziz to the “last-chance” conference at the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva in early 1991, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan went out of his way to assure his guests at the İstanbul foreign ministers’ meeting on Nov. 2-3 of Turkey’s peaceful and good-neighborly intentions.

 

Has the PKK become CIA asset?

by Mick Hall

We are told upwards of 250 armed PKK combatants crossed the Iraq-Turkey border and killed 12 young Turkish solders and wounded 18, they then return back across the same border with 8 Turkish army conscripts as prisoners, yet not a single US surveillance satellite, spy plane or drone sees a dickie bird. Perhaps it is time to look a little closer at the PKK in Iraq; and consider the possibility whether it might have become an asset of the US intelligence services.

JOURNAL: The PKK's Opportunity to Win Strategically

by John Robb

Current tightness in the oil markets (peak oil?) has presented the PKK, the Kurdish guerrilla group fighting the Turkish government, with an amazing opportunity. It can become responsible for sending oil prices over $100 a barrel and sowing panic in global markets.

 

 

 

 

Turkish Press Scanner

Yeni Şafak 600,000 wait in line for pilgrimage to MeccaClose to 600,000 people are waiting in line to go on the largest annual pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca, a number that exceeds the existing quota of 70,000, causing the Directorate of Religious Affairs to demand additional quota, the daily Yeni Şafak reported. The number of people who want to go on pilgrimage is too many, Ali Bardakoğlu, head of the directorate, told reporters during his visit to the Anatolian province Isparta. Europe has a quota only for half of the 16,000 Turkish people in living in Europe, he said. “We still keep our hopes intact for the rest. We are going to negotiate with

Yusuf Kanlı: DTP cannot play this game

One may wonder “Is everyone in this country obliged to show respect to the Turkish flag and the national anthem?” Or one may ask why people in Turkey are so obsessed with their flag and national anthem... The answer is this, “That's the way it is...” These are not issues on which anyone in this country can compromise. There are things that people may discuss and have different opinions about, and there are things on which there can be no differences... Nowadays most of us condemn the 1980 military coup, though in late 1979 and early 1980 an intervention by the military to stop the bloodshed in the streets by extreme left and extreme right groups had become the “only hope” for most of the peo

 

The Erdoğan-Bush talks: Successful or not?

Semih İDİZ

 

Turkish Press Scanner

Journalists ask Kurtalan about husband - Sabah Deputy from the eastern Anatolian city of Van, Fatma Kurtalan, who was one of the three deputies to go to northern Iraq to receive the abducted Turkish soldiers, said she does not know whether her husband is an outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) separatist now, reported daily Sabah yesterday. Pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) deputy Kurtalan's husband, Salman Kurtalan, whom she has not seen since 1998, was revealed as a PKK member and has been sentenced in absentia, the daily said. According to Parliament's records Kurtalan is still married. However, Kurtalan pointed out that she has no idea about her husband's whereabou

 

First coalition against the PKK

Mehmet Ali Birand

 

Turkish Press Scanner

Vatan Strange answers from environment minister Journalists were greeted with an angry response by Veysel Eroğlu, minister for environment and forestry and director of Istanbul Waterworks Company when they asked him questions about the decreasing water levels in Ankara's dams, reported the daily Milliyet yesterday.“Are you experts of water issues?” Eroğlu asked. “There will be no water cuts even there is no water in dams. This is a professional secret,” he said.Speaking at a meeting about Istanbul's water shortage problem, Eroğlu gave a strange answer to the question about the water level in the dams of capital city Ankara: “You sh

 

Bush didn't risk losing Turkey

Mehmet Ali Birand

Pinpoint operations at issue

Murat YETKİN

 Yusuf Kanli: Surgical operation on PKK

It must be rather uncomfortable for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan being the prime minister of the country nowadays. Even though he has been ruling it out, the prime minister must have been alarmed more than anyone else in the country with the “isolated” attacks here and there in many western cities of the country on businesses owned by people with ethnic Kurdish background. There is obviously an escalation in Turkish nationalism, and a rise in ethnic Kurdish nationalism. If not for anything else, the government is compelled to score some striking success in its struggle against separatist terrorism and put a full stop to this “alienation” psychology in society that may produce very grave results. Wha...

Mountain Turks' Kurdish nationalism out of Pandora's box

C. Cem OĞUZ

 

‘Kurdistan' behind plenty of words?

Burak BEKDİL

Turkey, US agree to build 'communication channels' against PKK

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and U.S. President George W. Bush agreed Monday to establish an “operational coordination” system that will provide better communication to combat the

 

Turkish Press Scanner

Zaman Chinese copy even the defect in product Chinese producers who do not recognize any limits in industrial espionage, this time targeted Turkish heating firm Kumtel and acquired a production mould, which the firm discarded due to a defect, the daily Zaman reported yesterday. A Chinese firm produced a copy of Kumtel's best-selling heater and registered the name. The Chinese firm did not recognize the defect in the mould and the heaters were sold in Algeria and Morocco. Mustafa Köaseoğlu, the head of the administrative board of Kumtel saw their heater being sold with a production defect in North African countries and filed a suit against the Chinese firm. Köseoğlu arranged for the heat

Turkey enters risky phase...

Mehmet Ali Birand

USA and the Iraqi Kurds

İLTER TÜRKMEN

 PKK TERRORISM

 Inquiry and Analysis Series - No. 401

 Bush declares Kurdish militants 'enemy of Turkey ... enemy of Iraq ... enemy of the United States' - On Deadline - USATODAY.com

 :As Kurds’ Status Improves, Support for Militants Erodes in Turkey - New York Times

Turkey-PKK conflict highlights American arrogance » Politics » the Pioneer | Whitman news, delivered.

Why Turks no longer love the U.S. | csmonitor.com

Turkey and the Kurds: Searching for an Exit on the Highway to War - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

 

Diplomacy of the talks

Turkey is ambivalent following talks between Turkish authorities and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President George W. Bush.

Turkey’s resolve and wrong expectations

The meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President George W. Bush at the White House last Monday was expected to be a turning point for Turkey’s war on Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorism as well as for US-Turkish relations; at least some on the Turkish side thought so.

Mistakes the Americans made

We could never have imagined -- even after the end of the Cold War -- that the Turkish people and the state elite would have come to view the US as an enemy threatening Turkey’s security and integrity.

We didn’t fall into the trap

What happened after the Bush-Erdoğan meeting on Nov. 5? We are once again discussing two sides of an issue as though they were as clear as black and white, as we always do following summits.

 

 

Turkey after Nov. 5: What’s next? by MEHMET SEYFETTİN EROL

The long-awaited “historic meeting” has finally taken place. Turkey, whose eyes were completely riveted on this meeting to decide its next step, is currently busy deliberating the results of this meeting.

Turkish ultimatum to Washington by JOSHUA W. WALKER

Nov. 5, 2007 was a unique day in US-Turkish relations. Despite appearances and media accounts to the contrary, the White House meeting between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and US President George W. Bush clearly demonstrated that Turkey holds the cards where the US is concerned in Iraq.

 

In the wake of a crisis

by SOLİ ÖZEL, SABAH

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who held successful talks with US President [George W.] Bush on Monday, drove the Bush administration into a corner and managed to make the US promise its cooperation against the terrorist organization.

Was the Erdoğan-Bush meeting a success or a fiasco?

It seems that the results of the meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and US President George W. Bush at the White House early this week will continue to occupy Turkey’s agenda for a long time.

Will the US visit yield results?

by TAHA AKYOL, MİLLİYET

The most proper method to be pursued against the outlawed PKK terrorist organization is to carry out air offensives and strike PKK bases. We may send ground troops and launch targeted operations only if necessary.

Did the Erdoğan-Bush meeting focus on PKK?

by KÜRŞAT BUMİN, YENİ ŞAFAK

I believe the main focus of the meeting between Prime Minister Erdoğan and US President [George W.] Bush held on Monday was the stance to be adopted by Turkey against the Iraqi Kurdish administration, which grows stronger each day.

Erdoğan-Bush meeting sparks mixed reactions

Finally, the long-awaited meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and US President George W. Bush took place at the White House on Monday, where Bush pledged to step up US military and intelligence cooperation to aid Turkey in its fight against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Striking developments

by MAHİR KAYNAK, STAR

Will Turkey embark on a cross-border operation into northern Iraq because it ran out of patience in the wake of recent terrorist acts, or have “they” made us run out of patience because it was high time Turkey launched an operation into Iraq?

 

The Kurdish problem and the terrorism issue

by İSMET BERKAN, RADİKAL

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is a terrorist organization that is indirectly controlled by the United States.

 

Diplomatic means exhausted; what comes next?

Yesterday, holding its breath, Turkey waited for what would emerge from a long-awaited meeting between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and US President George W. Bush vis-a-vis Turkey’s fight against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

US-Turkey relations in case of another attack

by RUŞEN ÇAKIR, VATAN

The key notion of today’s meeting between Erdoğan and Bush is “concrete steps.”

America and terrorism

by TAHA AKYOL, MİLLİYET

Will Prime Minister [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan’s meeting with US President [George W.] Bush turn out satisfactorily in terms of “amity and alliance”?

Kurdish problem -- PKK issue

by MEHMET ALTAN, STAR

Turkey is trying to make itself understood by the rest of the world as a “victim of terrorism.”