I’m posting from a coffee shop in the Esenboga airport in Ankara while waiting for a flight back to the states. And I have to say that you left out what seems to be on the minds of absolutely everyone I’ve talked to in the last couple of weeks: the (Kurdish) PKK. From the people I’ve talked to and the newspapers I’ve read, the top issue doesn’t seem to be the rise of the Islamic-rooted AKP, but rather who is going to do what with respect to the ongoing PKK terrorism campaign. And here’s where it gets tough to figure out who to root for. The ruling AKP seems very cautious when it comes to invading northern Iraq. And this is obviously good from the standpoint of the U.S., as Kurdish northern Iraq is the best thing going in Iraq and the U.S. needs the support of the Kurds to have any hope of succeeding in Iraq. But the opposition parties all believe that the AKP has been far too easy on the PKK and believe the best way to end the terror campaign in Turkey is to invade Iraq and root out the PKK’s supporters. Which is worse, the contuing rise of religious influence in Turkish politics ala the AKP or a win by the opposition and a Turkish invasion of Iraq? That’s a really, really tough call. Here on the sidelines, I think the best hope is a very slim majority win by the AKP (close enough to force a secularist compromise presidency) with the U.S. successfully getting the Iraqi Kurds to crack down on the PKK.
