The Turkey Analyst

Vol. 4 no. 18, 26 September 2011

ANALYSIS

The Secret MIT-PKK Talks: Was a Turkish-Kurdish Peace Accord Ever Close?
Halil M. Karaveli
As the Turkish-Kurdish conflict escalates, the release of a 50-minute tape recording of a meeting between leading officials of the Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MİT) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has supplied insights into the strategy of the Turkish government. The effort to explore a peaceful solution was doomed because ultimately the ruling AKP has not disengaged from Turkish state tradition. The AKP state does have a more tolerant approach than the defunct Kemalist state, but it is nonetheless still a patronizing state that expects societal obedience. The AKP government thus never engaged in an earnest negotiation with the Kurdish representatives.

Erdogan's North African Tour: Turkey's Regional Aspirations and western Interests
Veysel Ayhan
The September 12-16 tour of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Egypt, Tunisia and Libya has occasioned the question what role Turkey can be expected to play in the Middle East and North Africa in the wake of the “Arab Spring”. Erdoğan is for good reason perceived as a leader who speaks for the “Arab street” on the international scene. But, concurrently – although perhaps less obviously – Turkey’s Middle Eastern and North African aspirations are increasingly in tune with Western interests as well.

What the Columnists Say
The escalation of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict remains the dominant topic of the Turkish debate. The commentators  are trying to figure out why the negotiations that have been conducted between the Turkish state representatives and the Kurdish insurgents ultimately failed to midwife a peaceful solution, which most tend to assume was close at hand, after a recording of a meeting in 2010 between the Turkish Intelligence Agency and the PKK was recently made public. Generally, there is a consensus among the liberal and conservative pro-AKP commentators and pundits (who dominate the public discourse) that the PKK is the side that is to blame. The Kurds are accused of having betrayed peace by once again taking up arms. Meanwhile, there are very few voices in the mainstream media who suggest that the ruling AKP and Prime Minister Erdoğan may have any responsibility.

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NEW Silk Road Paper published

Reconciling Statism with Freedom: Turkey's Kurdish Opening
by Halil M. Karaveli, October 2010.



The Turkey Analyst
The Turkey Analyst is a publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Joint Center, designed to bring authoritative analysis and news on the rapidly developing domestic and foreign policy issues in Turkey. It is published weekly, and includes a topical analysis, as well as translations and summaries of selected Turkish news reports. It is edited by Halil M. Karaveli.

The Turkey Analyst welcomes article submissions.

The Joint Center
The Joint Center, created in 2005, is the product of the merger of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, and the Silk Road Studies Program, at the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy.

The Turkey Initiative
The Joint Center launched a Turkey Initiative in 2006 in order to improve understand of Turkish domestic and foreign affairs in Europe and the United States.

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