Turkey Analysis: The Opposition, the Government, and the “Grand Kurdish Settlement”

Abdullah Ocalan and Recep Tayyip ErdoganThe challenges to a "grand Kurdish project" go beyond Ankara. The first is over the crisis in Syria --- indirectly involving Iran --- where the Erdogan Government has no intention of repairing times with Syrian Kurds of the Democratic Union Party. The second is the inclusion of Iraq's Massoud Barzani in a political process: it is unclear what incentive Ankara has to acknowledge, let alone accept, the demand of the pro-Kurdish opposition party BDP.

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Turkey Analysis: How Can Ankara's "2071" Vision See the Kurdish Issue?

In the age of globalisation, Foreign Minister Davutoglu’s vision is not that of an empire through swords. Instead, Ankara's ascendancy is through soft power. And that brings in the Kurdish problem.

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Turkey Special: A Tangled Situation --- Ankara, The Kurds, and US Messages

Recep Tayyip ErdoganAn intervention from the US Ambassador, a challenge from Washington's top military commander --- what is “Erdogan’s country” to do now? Facing the Americans, Iraq's Barzani, and the PKK --- all in the context of the evolving Syrian crisis --- will Ankara change its tough-on-Kurds inside Turkey? Will it make a move regarding Syria's Kurds? Or will it try to gain time until Ankara can see a clearer message from Washington following the US elections?

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Deadly Clash Between Insurgents in Aleppo

Claimed video of the Free Syrian Army firing on a Kurdish rally in the Ashrafieh section of Aleppo

See also Iraq Feature: How Kurdistan and Exxon Mobil Out-Manoeuvred Baghdad Over Oil
Saturday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A "Ceasefire" With Fighting, Car Bombs, and 103 Dead

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2116 GMT: Syria. Insurgents capture an armoured BMP vehicle and ---eventually --- drive it away:

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Syria and Turkey Analysis: Ankara Looks to Iraq's Barzani Amid the "Kurdish Spring"

Ahmet Davutoglu with Massoud BarzaniAnkara faces its recurring problem: in its search for a post-Assad settlement in Syria involving the Kurds, it cannot escape the situation of the Kurds inside its borders.

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