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TEHRAN — Gunmen shot dead a prominent Iranian cleric on Thursday in the northwest province of Kurdistan, the official IRNA news agency reported, in the latest attack to shake the region. Mullah Mohammed Sheikh Olislam, who represents the province in Iran's top clerical body the Assembly of Experts, was shot twice in the head by unknown attackers at a mosque in Sanandaj, Kurdistan's main city.

"Ali Borhan Mamousta was on his way home from prayers when three unknown assailants fired at him," the Mehr news agency reported, adding that he was killed outside his house and hit by several bullets. (AFP)

Many connect US Defense Secretary’s sudden visit to Iraq with a new problem which has appeared in the US administration. The Pentagon has recently announced that the United States would accelerate the withdrawal of US troops from the war-torn nation, although the situation in Iraq is far from being stable. The US administration is particularly concerned about the Kurds’ claims for Iraqi oil wells. It is an open secret that Iraq’s Kurdish minority has been a staunch ally of the United States during the nation’s incursion in the country to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime. On the one hand, Gates had...

Bayram Bozyel, the General Chairman of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Hak-Par (Rights and Freedom Party) has disclosed a plan he claims will soon be implemented to dissolve the Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan – PKK) and end the longstanding conflict between Turkey’s military and the Iraqi-based Kurdish militants (Haber Turk, July 6; Sabah, July 11). Hak-Par seeks greater Kurdish autonomy within a Turkish federal system. According to Bozyel, who made the revelations following meetings with leading members of northern Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the four-part plan was drawn up by Turkey, Iraq and the United States and has the full...

With a projected capacity of about 40,000 bbl. a day, the new oil refinery inaugurated on July 18 by the Kurdish regional government of northern Iraq is modest even by the standards of Iraq's dilapidated oil industry. But its significance shouldn't be underestimated: in Kurdish minds, the region's ability to refine the oil it pumps is a vital step toward deepening its autonomy from the Arab-majority remainder of Iraq. (Read "The Reasons Behind Big Oil Declining Iraq's Riches.") Until recently, Iraqi Kurdistan had no refineries of its own, and though the area is sitting on a huge pool of oil,...

At the end of WWI, the victorious allies were creating a massive plan to divide what was left of the once great Ottoman Empire. The allies met in 1919 at the Versailles Conference where then US President Woodrow Wilson unsuccessfully pushed for the establishment of an independent state for the Kurds who at the time were spread out among six countries with the majority in what is now northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey, with lesser numbers in northeastern Syria, northwestern Iran and the Caucuses. They were, as today - known as the world's largest nation of over 30 million people...

Americans hope that there will be more reform in Kurdistan, but there is a feeling that it is not the job of Americans to bring change. Iraqi Kurds have their own future in their hands, says resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, Michael Rubin. He has written several articles about the domestic politics in the Middle-East. Rubin is also a Senior Lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School and gave lectures at the Kurdish Universities of Sulaymani, Salahuddin, and Duhok (Iraqi Kurdistan). In the recent years he got a lot of attention for his critical articles in western media aimed...

A tiny Canadian oil company has struck a giant oilfield in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq that may contain up to 3 billion barrels of recoverable crude. Heritage Oil’s Miran West oil find is the largest to date in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, and highlights the potential for further big discoveries in underexplored parts of Iraq, which already has the world’s third-largest proved oil reserves. It could also turn a spotlight on Baghdad’s long-running conflict with regional authorities over oil jurisdiction. “This is extremely important,” said Samuel Ciszuk, the Middle East energy analyst for IHS Global Insight, the international...

DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY -- Gunmen armed with assault rifles and grenades attacked a wedding party in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey, killing at least 45 people, authorities said. The attack on Monday was one of the worst involving civilians in European Union candidate Turkey's recent history. Interior Minister Besir Atalay said initial evidence did not point to terrorism, suggesting he was ruling out involvement of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Television broadcasters said there had been a blood feud in the village in recent years. .... Local media said the families of both the bride and the groom included members of...

Iran shelled Kurdish rebel positions in a remote area of northern Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdistan region Saturday, a spokesman for the Kurdish Peshmerga border guards said. "They fired shells at the mountain area of Choma Sar. There were no casualties because it is a mostly unpopulated area," Jabbar Yawar said. The shelling started at around 1:30 a.m. EDT (0530 GMT) and continued for more than an hour. Border guards also spotted Iranian military helicopters bombing an area just inside Iran. The aircraft did not cross into Iraq, he said. Iranian officials did not immediately comment. The shelling followed clashes between...

ISTANBUL, April 27 (RIA Novosti) - Turkey, a NATO member, has expressed interest in buying S-400 Triumf air defense systems from Russia, a Russian defense industry official said on Monday. "Turkey has expressed a strong interest in buying S-400 air defense systems from Russia," said Anatoly Aksenov, a senior adviser to the general director of Russian arms export monopoly Rosoboronexport. Russia is exhibiting over 120 types of weaponry at the IDEF 2009 arms show in Istanbul on April 27-30. The biennial exhibition has been organized by the Turkish defense industry since 1993. Aksenov, who leads the Russian delegation at the...

JERUSALEM, April 27 (Reuters) - Israel is troubled by an unprecedented military exercise between its ally, Turkey, and its arch-foe Syria, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Monday. Ankara announced on Sunday it would hold its first drill with Syria this week, using ground forces in a border area that has been the focus of a 25-year conflict between Turkey and separatist Kurdish rebels. Israel has extensive defence ties to Turkey, a NATO member and among the few Muslim nations to have built an alliance with the Jewish state. The Israeli and Turkish air forces and navies have held...

Iraq's northern enclave used to be called a model for the rest of the country. Not anymore, say Kurds. Until the old man is out of the way, everyone else who hungers for power in Iraqi Kurdistan is on hold. It could be a long wait. Despite his chronic bad knee and a Mayo Clinic heart operation last August, 75-year-old Jalal Talabani, Iraq's president, is a survivor. At present, he and his longtime rival, Massoud Barzani (together with their families and their respective political machines), still control the largest part of what's worth controlling in the three northern Iraqi provinces...

Archaeologists have discovered a small ancient statue of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen in Kurdish Northern Iraq. The discovery was made by a team led by noted Iraqi archaeologist Mr Hassan Ahmad in an area known as Dohuq Valley in a place referred to by locals as 'Pharaoh's Palace'. Experts have estimated the age of the statue at around 3500 years old, dating from around 1400 BC. The statue confirms historical data that the ancient Egyptians, during the 'New Kingdom' period, enjoyed warm relations with the Hittite Mitanni Kingdom and often travelled into their territory many hundreds of miles from the...

To improve the learning environment and overall welfare of about 35 elementary school students in Kani Mayor Village, Kurdish Regional Government leaders and U.S. forces opened the doors to a new schoolhouse complete with instructor-living quarters, Feb. 12. Photo by Seaman Zachary Hernandez, Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force - Arabian Peninsula. KURDISTAN — Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) leaders and Coalition forces inaugurated the first, permanent educational facility here in the mountainous region of Kani Mayor Village, Feb. 12. The new school supports the growing educational needs and serves as a platform for the future economic stability of this village...

The Treasury Department has blacklisted an Iranian Kurdish opposition group based in northern Iraq, a move that was greeted enthusiastically in Iran’s state-run media as part of a initiative by the Obama administration to forge better U.S.-Iranian relations. The Party of Free Life of Iranian Kurdistan, known by its Kurdish acronym, PJAK, was created in 2004 and has never engaged in international terrorism or in military activity outside of Iran. But its guerilla fighters have clashed frequently with Iranian Revolutionary Guards units in Iranian Kurdish towns and villages, making it a primary target of the Iranian regime.

Greetings from Mumbai (aka, “Bombay”). I’m here in the commercial capital of India and the site of the horrific terrorist attacks by Pakistani Islamic jihadists that killed more than 200 Indians at the famed Taj hotel, the Jewish “Chabad” center, and several other locations around this city. Today, I had the opportunity to visit several of these sites and pray for the survivors and for the families of those injured and killed. Currently, I’m on a two-week speaking tour throughout India with several dear friends, teaching Christian pastors, ministry leaders and lay leaders about “God’s love and plan for the...

On November 19, 2008, six corpses were discovered in Kurdistan-Iran. Archeologists believe the corpses were buried some 3000 years ago. The corpses belonged to a king and five of his bodyguards, who were buried around him... [T]he king was buried with jewelry and his crown. A fish plaque with ancient writings placed on his chest requires a scientific study by unbiased archeologists to come up with an authentic and undistorted translation of the historic message. The king's picture shows a strong resemblance to the ones of the ancient pictures of the Medes emperors. Also, the geographical area where the corpses...

This morning President Bush welcomed President Barzani of the Kurdistan Regional Government to the Oval Office. The two leaders discussed the future of a democratic Iraq and the upcoming elections which Iraqis unanimously approved last month. (Transcript) In related news—news that the mainstream media refuses to report—the Wasit Province, located south of Baghdad, was returned to Iraqi civilian control today. Press Secretary Dana Perino: It becomes the 13th of 18 provinces to take the lead for its security in Iraq. It's the second Iraqi province to transfer security responsibility in the last two weeks, and we had Babil just a...

For Iraqi Kurdish mathematics teacher Mohammed Aziz, two wrongs can make a right. After decades of forced exile by the Baath party of Saddam Hussein, he is back with a vengeance. Aziz was just four years old in 1975 when his family was evicted from Bawaplawi village, near the northern city of Khanaqin, and Arab settlers grabbed their home. Now schoolteacher Aziz is back and has done to the Arabs what they did to him. "Our homes were taken over by the Arabs without paying us any compensation," Aziz, 37, said at the modest single-storey brick house which he has...

Influential former Pentagon official Richard Perle has been exploring going into the oil business in Iraq and Kazakhstan, according to people with knowledge of the matter and documents outlining possible deals. Mr. Perle, one of a group of security experts who began pushing the case for toppling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein about a decade ago, has been discussing a possible deal with officials of northern Iraq's Kurdistan regional government, including its Washington envoy, according to these people and the documents. It would involve a tract called K18, near the Kurdish city of Erbil, according to documents describing the plan. A...

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) accused the State Department Wednesday of issuing “misleading” denials regarding its involvement in Hunt Oil’s controversial contract with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, also alleged that the results of his panel’s investigation raised serious questions as to the role the State Department played in the recently reported no-bid contracts between the Iraqi Ministry of Oil and prominent U.S. and multinational oil corporations. In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Waxman demanded that her office hand over all communications on the negotiation of the...

ANKARA, Turkey - A Turkish TV station is quoting a senior military commander as saying that Turkey and Iran have carried out coordinated strikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. CNN-Turk television reports that Gen. Ilker Basbug has confirmed for the first time that the two countries share intelligence against the rebels. He said the two countries plan to launch more coordinated operations against the rebel group in the future. The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, has been fighting for self-rule in southeastern Turkey since 1984 from bases in northern Iraq. The Iranian army frequently shells villages in the mountains...

Medics in Iraqi Kurdistan said on Saturday that they had seen a surge in violence against women in May, with both so-called "honour" killings and female suicides on the increase. "At least 14 women died in the first 10 days of May alone," a doctor told AFP in the region's second largest city of Sulaimaniyah. "Seven of them took their own lives, the other seven were murdered in still unexplained circumstances" -- apparently the victims of "honour" killings. "Over the same period, we recorded 11 attempted self-immolations. These women were so desperate they set fire to themselves," the doctor added,...

MORTALLY wounded and bleeding profusely, Pela Atroshi covered her head with her hands, pleading "please don't shoot me, please don't shoot me". As her sister and her mother screamed, her uncle Rezkar Atroshi raised his gun and killed her. The family's honour had been cleansed. Rezkar had already shot Pela twice in the back in the upstairs room. Helped downstairs by her mother and her younger sister, the 19-year-old Kurdish Swede was confronted by four resolute men - her father and his three brothers. The men pulled the women apart. Her youngest uncle then finished the job, shooting Pela in...

The Kurdish regional government in Northern Iraq is providing a safe haven to several thousand Iraqi Christians who have fled persecution in other parts of the country, government officials and local pastors told Newsmax. Unlike refugee camps set up for some 100,000 Shia Muslims fleeing attacks from Sunnis, which are closely monitored by Kurdish security forces, Christians have been encouraged to live anywhere. “Christians in Iraq need special attention, because they’ve been suffering because they are Christians,” Deputy Prime Minister Omar Fattah told Newsmax in an exclusive interview in Erbil. “Maybe we give some instructions to others where they can...

Moscow, March 18 (RIA Novosti) Russia has said that the recent violence in Tibet is linked with the recognition by some states of the independence of Serbia's breakaway province, Kosovo. In an interview published Tuesday in the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the recognition of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence by many countries, including the US and the majority of the European Union (EU) states, had 'already reverberated in many regions.' He said that the Kosovo issue was linked to recent riots in Tibet and demands for greater autonomy by ethnic Albanians in Macedonia. 'There are...

CUKURCA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey's military said Friday it has ended a ground offensive against Kurdish rebels in Iraq, but said that foreign influence did not play a role in its decision. At least 200 trucks carrying Turkish troops were seen leaving the Iraqi border area and heading into Turkey's interior. The move came a day after Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Turkish leaders during a visit in Ankara that they should end the offensive as soon as possible. In Washington, President Bush made a similar point Thursday, saying Turkey needed to move quickly and get out. "Both the start...

WASHINGTON -- The Turkish government briefed the Bush administration about its plans to strike northern Iraq well in advance of launching the controversial operation and the U.S. raised no objections, according to American and Turkish officials. Turkish representatives told U.S. diplomatic and military officials that Ankara was planning to send ground troops into Iraq to strike targets belonging to the Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, an anti-Turkish guerilla group, according to officials from both countries. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan personally told President Bush about the plans, the officials said. The White House confirmed the conversation occurred. "In terms of...

Excerpt - ZAKHU, Iraq, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Kurdish PKK guerrillas said on Sunday they had shot down a Turkish Cobra attack helicopter during clashes with Turkish forces in northern Iraq. "At 6 p.m. (1500 GMT) yesterday, our fighters shot down a Cobra helicopter," Ahmed Danees, head of foreign relations for the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), told Reuters by telephone. He gave no details of casualties but said more information would be released later. The incident had occurred during fighting in the remote Chamsku area close to the border, Danees said. ~ snip ~

Turkey launches ground operation in Iraq By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer 1 minute ago Turkish troops have launched a ground incursion across the border into Iraq in pursuit of separatist Kurdish rebels, the military said Friday — a move that dramatically escalates Turkey's conflict with the militants. It's the first confirmed ground operation by the Turkish military into Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, and it raised concerns that it could trigger a wider conflict with the U.S.-backed Iraqi Kurds. The ground operation started after Turkish warplanes and artillery bombed suspected rebel targets on Thursday, the...

BAGHDAD — Iraqi Kurdish troops on Thursday encircled Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq and threatened to open fire in the most serious standoff between the two nation's forces since Turkey threatened late last year to go after guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers Party sheltering in Iraq . ADVERTISEMENT The standoff began when Turkish troops in tanks and armored vehicles left one of five bases they've had in Iraq since 1997 and moved to control two main roads in Dohuk province, Iraqi officials said. Kurdish soldiers from the peshmerga militia, which is loyal to the Kurdish Regional Government, moved to stop...

ANKARA, Turkey, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- The Turkish military said it is setting the ground work for a large-scale ground invasion into northern Iraq targeting the Kurdistan Workers' Party. The military said the ground operation is the final strike against the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known by its Kurdish language initials of PKK. The operation follows airstrikes on the group in late 2007 and military officials said the operation is scheduled for mid-March, the English language Turkish daily, Today's Zaman said Monday. Military sources told the newspaper that the operation would be on two fronts; one along the Turkish border with...

Not long ago, in a decrepit prison in Iraqi Kurdistan, a senior interrogator with the Kurdish intelligence service decided, for my entertainment and edification, to introduce me to an al-Qaeda terrorist named Omar. “This one is crazy,” the interrogator said. “Don’t get close, or he’ll bite you.” Omar was a Sunni Arab from a village outside Mosul; he was a short and weedy man, roughly 30 years old, who radiated a pure animal anger. He was also a relentless jabberer; he did not shut up from the moment we were introduced. I met him in an unventilated interrogation room that...

President of Iraq's Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani refused to meet U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday, protesting against Washington's stance on the Turkish shelling on northern Iraq, the Kurdish government said in its website on Wednesday. The website quoted the Kurdish Prime Minister Negervan Barzani as saying that President Barzani was originally supposed to head for Baghdad to meet Rice and other officials but he changed his mind at the very last-minute. Turkish warplanes two days ago shelled outposts of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Kurdistan. In a statement released yesterday, the Kurdistan presidency held the U.S....

300 TURKISH TROOPS ENTER NORTHERN IRAQ OVERNIGHT -SENIOR IRAQI MILITARY SOURCE

BAGHDAD, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Kurdish officials insisted on Sunday that there had been no Turkish military incursion into northern Iraq, describing as baseless Ankara's claims that significant losses had been inflicted on Kurdish rebels. The Turkish military said on Saturday it had launched an "intensive intervention" to hit the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Iraq's mountainous north. A Turkish military official said about 100 special forces troops had crossed into Iraq and that long-range artillery and up to six helicopters had bombed a PKK camp after spotting a group of 50-60 rebels 20 km (12 miles) inside the border....

Turkish tanks were seen advancing towards the Iraqi borders on a background of Turkish threats to raid northern Iraq to hunt down fighters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) holed up in mountainous areas on the Iraqi side of the joint frontiers, border guards and witnesses in Duhuk said on Friday. "More than 17 Turkish tanks drew near three kilometers from the district of Zakho, close to the Iraqi-Turkish borders," Col. Hussein Tamr told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). Eyewitnesses from the village of Qargula, western Zakho, said they saw Turkish tanks near the borders where...

"Turkish artillery fired 15 artillery shells on Monday night at regions near Eizel tributary which separates Iraqi-Turkish borders, without leaving any casualties," the source, who wished to remain anonymous, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). Duhuk is the third province within Iraq's Kurdistan region. It is in the far north of Iraq and borders Turkey. It is located 460 km north of Baghdad. The shelling came amid fears of a possible Turkish incursion into northern Iraq after the Turkish parliament approved a mandate for the Turkish government to pursue the Turkish banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) inside...

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi officials say Turkish helicopter gunships have attacked villages inside Iraq.

Berlin - The simmering tensions in Turkey's Kurdish southeast are not only playing out along the country's border with Iraq, where the military has amassed tens of thousands of troops following renewed clashes with Kurdish rebels holed up in Iraq's mountainous north. They're also spilling onto the streets of European cities from Berlin to Brussels to Innsbruck, Austria. This weekend, authorities are braced for another round of protests in the German capital, where two weeks ago Turkish ultranationalists attacked a Kurdish cultural center, wielding machetes and injuring dozens of people. Last weekend, some 600 mainly Kurdish protesters returned to Hermannplatz...

Kurdish rebels have crossed into Iran to avoid Turkish offensive: ex-leader by Michel Moutot Sun Nov 11, 5:12 AM ET Thousands of Kurdish guerrillas have crossed the border into Iran to escape a threatened Turkish offensive against their mountain redoubts in northern Iraq, a former rebel leader said. When and if the Turkish troops arrive, they will only be "chasing shadows", Osman Ocalan, brother of jailed rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, told AFP in an interview in his home in Koya in Iraq's northern Kurdish region. "I know that since last month thousands of PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) members have crossed...

Members of the Kurdish Community will hold a peaceful protest in front of the Turkish consulate against the Turkish threats of southern Kurdistan, KurdishMedia.com has learnt from the organisers on Tuesday. The protest is held at 6300 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90048 on Friday, November 2nd, 2007 between the hours of 12:00 (noon) – 3:00 pm to denounce the recent aggression and threat of invasion of the territory of Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraqi Iraq.

Islamic Republic of Iran's persecution of the KurdsYouTube - Save Kurds from Iranian Persecution-PDKI Shoresh "If there's such a thing as reincarnation, I must've been a ... Watch video - 2 min 58 sec - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WHZ74CkfeUThe Plight of Iran's Kurds [written 2004]http://www.mideasti.org/summary/plight-irans-kurds

DERISHKIT, Iraq - Two Turkish jet fighters streaked across the mountain peaks near this border village Wednesday as part of an expanding military force gathered to pressure Kurdish rebels to abandon their hideouts in northern Iraq. ADVERTISEMENT Residents claimed the planes were on a bombing run to hit a site about four miles inside Iraq, but could offer no details to back up their assertion. If true, however, the airstrike would mark a notable escalation of Turkish tactics against the Kurdish rebels. The overflight came after three days of artillery shelling from inside Turkey at this area along the Zey-Gowra...

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked positions of Kurdish rebels along the rugged Iraqi-Turkish border on Wednesday, the country's official Anatolia news agency reported. Several F-16 warplanes loaded with bombs took off from an air base in southeastern city of Diyarbakir, private Dogan news agency and local reporters said. Turkish artillery units had been shelling rebel positions Tuesday night in northern Iraq, a government official said on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The strikes were in retaliation for a rebel ambush on Sunday that killed 12 soldiers and...

THE Bush Administration is considering air strikes, including cruise missiles, against the Kurdish rebel group PKK in northern Iraq. The move would be an attempt to stave off a Turkish invasion of that country to fight the rebels. President George Bush spoke with Turkish President Abdullah Gul by phone yesterday in an effort to ease the crisis. And Prime Minister John Howard says the tensions on the Turkey-Iraq border will not help the west's battle for democracy in Iraq. Mr Howard said there was some recent evidence that US forces were making headway in their battle against al-Qaeda in Iraq...

Iraq shuts down Kurdish rebel offices under threat of attack Philip Webster, Political Editor, and Tom Baldwin in Washington Times interview with Turkish Prime Minister | Transcript Iraq ordered the closure yesterday of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) offices in the country as pressure mounted on the Government of Nouri al-Maliki to clamp down on the hardline Kurdish separatists. “The PKK is a terrorist organisation and we have taken a decision to shut down their offices and not allow them to operate on Iraqi soil,” Mr al-Maliki said after talks with Ali Babacan, the Turkish Foreign Minister. “We will also...

DESHTATAK, Iraq - There is no war yet in this Kurdish mountain village, which sits about one-third of a mile from the guns of a Turkish border post. But neither is there much peace. ADVERTISEMENT For the past few weeks, Turkish border forces across the river valley have fired salvos of artillery shells that landed just outside this hamlet of Kurdish Christians. Because the homes, school and church have been spared, the shelling seems intended to mostly to intimidate. But these barrages — described by villagers on Tuesday — are a dramatic demonstration of the Turkish military's frustration with attacks...

Author ArchiveSend to a FriendPrint Version October 22, 2007 6:30 AM Rethinking RelationshipsTime to get tough with Turkey? By Jonathan Foreman The United States should radically rethink its relationship with Turkey. For the sad fact is that Ankara no longer seems to be an ally worthy of the name — indeed its threatened invasion of Iraq would be the act of an outright enemy. Nor has Turkey behaved like a genuine ally for more than four years. It’s not merely that Turkey refused at the last minute to let Coalition forces invade from the north in March 2003 —...