Turkey

PKK flag
Back HERE we wrote In praise of Fraser Nelson. What Nelson did in that article we linked to, was attempt to re-balance things. Israel, either through bad luck or successful lobbying, always gets a bad press. Only the simple folk are fooled by this, but it is relentless and institutional in nature. Not so long ago Israel decided that, in order to defend itself, it must deal with the 'peace flotilla'. The simple folk got very elated and the principal cheerleader in the condemnation of Israel was Turkey.Now Turkey is the one making the difficult decisions, it's fighting the PKK, see HERE.

Independence is best
Two things here: the behaviour of Turkey concerning the 'peace flotilla' and the US President's rhetoric following the oil spill. In the latter case the 'special relationship' between the US and the UK has come under the spotlight and this should be welcomed. In the former it's a bit more complicated. Turkey is seeking a relationship, it wants to join the EU. In both cases the UK should be both analytical and careful.

During WW2 there was no such thing as the political spinner, even so political presentation was important hence the arrival of the term 'special relationship' (SR), generally considered to have been first used by Winston Churchill to describe the close ties between himself and the US administration. It may have suited Churchill to think this way but ever since historians have cast doubt upon the real value to, and consequences flowing from, US policy both during and following WW2. Those times are now so far away it's fanciful to imagine the phrase has any of the original meaning left. So, unless it has acquired a modern meaningful translation, agreed by both the US and the UK, it's misleading.