| Description |
1 online resource (19 p.) |
| Series |
Special report ; 237 |
|
Special report (United States Institute of Peace) ; 237.
|
| Note |
Title from title screen (viewed on May 14, 2010). |
|
"May 2010." |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (p. 17-18). |
| Contents |
Introduction -- What explains Turkey's change in policy? -- Limitations of the new policy -- Policy options for the United States. |
| Summary |
In August 2009, the Turkish government announced that it would undertake a major initiative toward Turkey's Kurdish minority. In addition to being a major development in the long saga of Turkey's relations with its sizeable Kurdish minority, this initiative, known as the "democratic opening," is also a testament to the distance the Turkish government has traveled in its policy toward Iraq. Turkey, which had once spearheaded opposition to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), is implementing a 180-degree turn in its policy toward the KRG. It is developing close economic and political ties with the KRG, and the two are collaborating on a gamut of issues, including efforts to pacify the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). At the heart of these changes lay a confluence of developments. They include the new geopolitics of the region, the new foreign policy conception of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Turkey's domestic institutional context, changing perceptions within Turkey of the domestic Kurdish question, and efforts by key individual actors within Turkey. On the geopolitical level, the announced withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq has helped shift Turkey's approach to Iraq. Whether it is part and parcel of a conscious strategy by Ankara, Turkey's ability to influence events on the ground is greatest in northern Iraq. In Baghdad, Turkey has to contend with not just American competition but, far more significantly, the Iranian presence. Ironically, any increase in Turkish influence in the KRG translates into more in Baghdad because of the Kurds' critical role in Iraq's capital. On the foreign policy level, the AKP took advantage of the vacuum created by the war in Iraq and began to fashion itself as a regional power. In a policy that some have come to call "neo-Ottomanism," Turkey is expanding the contours of its influence in regions that were once part of the Ottoman Empire, including Iraq. |
| Subject |
Turkey -- Foreign relations -- Iraq -- Kurdistan.
|
|
Kurdistan (Iraq) -- Foreign relations -- Turkey.
|
|
Turkey -- Foreign relations -- Iraq.
|
|
Iraq -- Foreign relations -- Turkey.
|
| Added Author |
United States Institute of Peace.
|
| Gpo Item No. |
1063-K (online) |
| Sudoc No. |
Y 3.P 31:20/237 |
|
