Wednesday, November 6, 2013

'Yippee Kai Yay' (yawn, yawn!)

"... Ankara has to also deal with a host of new security threats as a result of the Syrian crisis and the general turmoil in the region. These range from a flood of refugees to the destabilizing activities of al-Qaeda-affiliated groups that have been flitting back and forth across the porous 900-kilometer (560-mile) border between Syria and Turkey. The chemical weapons threat has to be added to this.Erdogan is more than aware that Turks have zero appetite for being drawn into the Middle East’s deadly and seemingly intractable disputes. He has to take this seriously, because local, presidential and general elections are not far off.This is why he has to also be more pragmatic in foreign policy. Some diplomatic sources maintain that the new sense of pragmatism could also spread to currently almost nonexistent Turkish-Israeli ties. If that happens, it will mean the “zero problems” policy is on track."

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