FEATURE ARTICLE
Turkey faces increasing pressure at home after Friday's deadly ambush to launch a major offensive against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq that would hurt its ties with Washington and the European Union, analysts say... Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the powerful military have vowed to step up operations to crush the PKK...But analysts said the attack puts the government in a difficult position as it faces calls to strike back at the PKK but must be careful not to alienate its allies with any large-scale response...
...Washington and the EU, which Ankara hopes to join, are concerned that prolonged Turkish military operations inside Iraq could further destabilize Iraq and the wider region...Hugh Pope, an analyst for the International Crisis Group, said the attack appeared timed to hijack Turkish politics as the country tries to put behind it a power struggle between the secularist establishment and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and focus instead on pushing ahead with EU reforms...(TODAY'S ZAMAN).
Full Article: http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=155180
Related Article: Turkey presses US for more cooperation against PKK
Turkey has asked the United States, its NATO ally, to step up its cooperation in the fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which killed at least 15 soldiers in an attack on a Turkish military outpost near the Iraqi border on Friday...(TODAY'S ZAMAN).
