Tensions in Turkey

At Bitterlemmons, Mustafa Kibaroglu discusses the US relationship both with Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds, writing that “US policy in Iraq appears much more sensitive to meeting the demands of the Kurdish authority than those of its long-time NATO ally.”

He notes that this has deteriorated American-Turkish relations.

According to Kibaroglu, Turks are increasingly concerned over the border threat of the PKK while Kurds remain a critical ally of the United States in the structuring of Iraqi government.

Other news in Turkey: The Constitutional Court is considering a ban on the AKP (Justice and Development Party) in response to what it believes is Prime Minister Erdogan‘s threat to secularism, according to a Center for Strategic and International Studies report. It claims the Court “has been instrumental in sending into political extinction twenty four political parties in four decades. “