Cyprus-Forum.com

[Lit]

Turkey: A Warning on Security
By SEBNEM ARSU
Published: June 23, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/24/world ... urkey.html

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, warned European leaders on Wednesday that Europe’s security could not be guaranteed unless European countries stepped up support for Turkey in its struggle with Kurdish rebels, including extraditing suspects sought by the Turkish authorities. “We have bilateral agreements on extradition of criminals, but which one of these have you actually complied with?” Mr. Erdogan asked at a southeast European summit meeting in Istanbul.

[BOF]

pot calling kettle..........

[Oracle]

But the PKK only target Turks until they can get their land back. Why should the rest of the world care to support Turkey's Expansionism?

Viewed from here; it is the Turks who are the terrorists!

[repulsewarrior]

...lol, it is blackmail, a veiled threat to pull out of NATO, without more arms for the Turkish Army to do what they want with. it forewarns of the alliance Turkey is building with Iran and Pakistan.

it is granstanding for internal consumption, just a pre-election flicker.

it is sad...

[Gasman]

Why shouldn't Turkey chide the EU? Just about every other country (including all the EU countries) do. Why should Turkey be disallowed from doing so?

[boomerang]

Why shouldn't Turkey chide the EU? Just about every other country (including all the EU countries) do. Why should Turkey be disallowed from doing so?

chide anyone with what exatly?...or is turkey saying she will start exporting terrorists to the rest of the world?...

Patrick Cockburn: Strike reveals a weakness in the region's growing powerhouse


Wednesday, 23 June 2010
Just as the world was beginning to notice how Turkey is becoming more powerful and active, Kurdish guerrillas remind everybody of its weaknesses.


The Turkish state has not been able to an end a rebellion which has been festering since 1984. Limited concessions might have conciliated the Kurds but the ruling AKP has always backed away from any action that would have left it open to accusations of letting down the military.


The ferocity of political combat over the Kurds also underlines the extent to which Turkey remains divided between the old establishment (bureaucrats, army officers and the secular middle class) and the Islamic supporters of the AKP, whose core support is the rural hinterland, urban poor and the pious businessmen of Anatolia.

Failure to end the Kurdish insurrection is an outcome of these divisions. Turkish ministers have been preaching compromise to the rest of the Middle East but it is advice which Turkey has failed to heed at home. And the failure to incorporate different communities within the state is bound to hobble it in its efforts to become a regional power. Crushing the Kurdish rebellion was for so long a justification for the Turkish army's political power that it is not surprising some commentators in Istanbul wonder if the military has done all it could to prevent the PKK's return to war. The conflict could divert Turkey from extending its influence among Iraq's Kurds, a prospect that recently seemed imminent.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/patrick-cockburn-strike-reveals-a-weakness-in-the-regions-growing-powerhouse-2007589.html