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Middle East Review of International Affairs
Strategic Location, Political Dislocation: Turkey, the United States and Northern Iraq
by Bill Park
*
Abstract
The Turkish parliament's failure, after months of negotiations, to grant U.S. ground forces access to national territory to enable a direct land assault against northern Iraq demonstrated that Washington's strategic valuation of Turkey's geographic location may not necessarily be welcomed by the country's inhabitants. Ankara's preoccupation with the implications of the conflict for Kurdish aspirations demonstrated that the U.S.'s global strategic vision can be undermined by the more parochial, regional concerns of its allies. The future of Turkish democracy, U.S.-Turkish relations, the fortunes of the Kurdish people, as well as of Iraq itself, are all now at stake.
Full PDF Document, 13 pages, 79 kb
Endnotes
Note *: Bill Park is Senior Lecturer, Defense Studies Department, War Studies Group, King's College, London. Back