A motion allowing troops to enter Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish rebels is expected to pass in the Turkish parliament.
Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi (L) meets with Turkey President Abdullah Gul in Ankara. The Turkish parliament has met to vote on authorising the government to order military strikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, as Baghdad pleaded for time and promised to purge the militants.(AFP/Adem Altan)
by The Jamestown Foundation
Making Sense of the Current Phase of Turkish-Russian Relations
WASHINGTON, DC (10/11/07)--The Jamestown Foundation has released a new Occasional Paper entitled "Making Sense of the Current Phase of Turkish-Russian Relations." The paper is authored by Igor Torbakov, Visiting Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala, Sweden. This paper focuses not only on identifying the driving factors behind the Turkish-Russian rapprochement, but also on identifying the factors that could shape this relationship in the future.
Torbakov argues that although Turkish-Russian relations have drastically improved in recent years, the political situation remains precarious. Due to the continuing friction between the two countries, Russia and Turkey will continue to operate on two distinct levels: cooperation and competition. Torbakov's paper also looks briefly at the histories of these two respective countries, emphasizing the unifying factor of being labeled as the "Others" sometime during the history of the development of Europe and Eurasia. He concludes his paper by emphasizing the need to continue to closely monitor this relationship, as both Russia and Turkey struggle to move beyond a history of "mutual distrust."
Turkey's President Abdullah Gul (L) and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad review a honour guard during a welcoming ceremony in Ankara, October 17, 2007. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY)
Should we expect a cross-border operation into Iraq? How imminent is such an operation?
Relations between long-time strategic allies Turkey and the US have entered a critical period following the passage of the Armenian resolution by a US congressional committee despite Turkey’s objections and the US’s insistence on not taking concrete steps to prevent the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), based in northern Iraq, from launching attacks.
Turkey's parliament is set to give authorisation to a large-scale incursion into northern Iraq, as mounting international concern about such a move translated into waning US support for a resolution accusing Turks of genocide against Armenians..
C. Cem OĞUZ
Turkish army commandos patrol on foot near Uludere in the southeastern Turkish province of Sirnak, October 17, 2007. Turkey's parliament was poised on Wednesday to grant its army permission to enter northern Iraq to crush Kurdish separatist rebels based there, but Iraqi leaders stepped up a diplomatic offensive to avert any attack. REUTERS/Fatih Saribas
A luxurious toilet, which was built with European Union funds in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa's historic Harran city, could not be put into service for the past eight months, as the toilet
"Led astray Pushing the Armenian genocide resolution through Congress is a reckless act that reflects the corruption of the American political system....
FINALLY, US DEPARTMENT OF STATE BLOG SPEAKS:
The United States Congress may soon consider a resolution that brands the Ottoman Empire's World War I massacre of Armenians a genocide. The tragedy occurred ninety-years ago. Currently, the United States and Turkey enjoy a close strategic relationship.
Men sit under a tree in the southeastern Turkish city of Sirnak, October 16, 2007. Perched on a hillside overlooking the mountainous northern Iraqi border, Kurds in the southeastern Turkish city of Sirnak are nervously monitoring preparations for a possible cross-border military operation. To match feature TURKEY-IRAQ/KURDS REUTERS/Fatih Saribas
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For almost a year now, Turkey has been undergoing a profound domestic crisis.
