Re: [A-List] Re: Turkey: Robert Fisk analysis

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Sabri writes:

It is highly
likely that AKP is a US creation. I don't have any concrete
evidence of this but many noisy signals I keep getting and then
using to update my beliefs in a Bayesian fashion point that way.

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Here's something else to further confuse you: newspapers here yesterday were
featuring articles stating that the AKP government was going to initiate a
"drive" for EU membership, which doesn't sound very much like a clean break
with the previous regime, but which also raises questions about whether this
possible creation of the US is still in the pocket of its possible creator.
Is Turkish entry into the EU regarded as something that would strengthen or
weaken the EU by the US? What would be its strategic value? Personally I
still hold to the belief that if the Turkish people wish to join then they
should be welcomed with open arms and not excluded on grounds of invidious
distinction (religion, ethnicity). But all the same it would be useful to
know (or somehow divine) the thoughts of those attempting to re-draw the map
of the Near East, and how the AKP fits into all of this.

Fisk is an honourable man whose head and heart are generally in the right
place. My guess is that he's so pissed off with US policy that this distorts
his appreciation of the bigger picture from time to time. Like it does us
all, from time to time.

Michael