Friday, February 29, 2008

TURKEY DIVIDING AGAINST ITSELF, BUT STILL STANDING FIRM ON NORTHERN IRAQ - Eurasia Daily Monitor

"TURKEY DIVIDING AGAINST ITSELF, BUT STILL STANDING FIRM ON NORTHERN IRAQ

By Gareth Jenkins

Friday, February 29, 2008

Almost exactly 150 years ago, in June 1858, Abraham Lincoln famously declared that a house divided against itself could not stand. Yet in recent days, despite deepening internal divisions over the government’s attempts to lift the headscarf ban in Turkish universities, officials and politicians from across almost the entire political spectrum have been unanimous in resisting U.S. pressure to ensure that Turkey’s ongoing military operation against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is kept as short as possible. The only exception has been the Democratic Society Party (DTP), many of whose members are openly sympathetic to the PKK."

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