Turkey Is One of the

Turkey is one of the most important countries from the European horizon. However, its borders strech at the level of Asia and Africa as well. Given its geostrategic position and its human potential, Turkey is today an essential player on the international scene. From this point-of-view, the internal affairs of the state are relevant subjects for debate worldwide. One such subject is related to the internal struggles with the PKK, or the Kurdish Working Party.

Thus the Turkish state and the PKK have fought a series of important political and military battles and are representative for the Turkish politics. In the context of EU accession, the issue of the PKK as well as the Kurdish problem are essential for the reactions of the EU countries. In the late 70s, the PKK was formed as a result of the contant discriminatory treatment of the Kurdish minority especially in the East and South.

At this moment, it is considered that the Ankara government has a different policy towards the Kurdish groups around Turkey which prevents a positive political, economic, and social view on the Kurdish population. This in turn has determined retailatory actions from the PKK, the largest and most important Kurdish party in Turkey. Today, the PKK represents an even greater danger for Turkey because it sets in question the country's actual possiblities of accession to the EU and its valuable role as a NATO member.

The most important demand the group has is related to the creation of an independent, sovereign Kurdish state in the south east of Turkey, with full rights as state. Turkey however denies any possiblity of this taking place. Moreover, the relations Kurds have over the border in Iraw only deepens the problems the PKK pose to the Turkish state. In this sense, at the moment, the PKK is considered to be a terrorist organization (BBC, 2008).

This is not an issue to change over night particularly because the PKK has embraced a violent and distructive policy towards the Turkish state. In this sense, while prime minister Erdogan pleaded in 2008 for a cease fire and a turn to democratic principles for the PKK, the answers came in the form of violent attacks on civilians and representatives of the Turkish state.

The pressures to put an end to the conflicts surrounding the issue of PKK are also coming from the western states involved in the war against terrorrism, especially the United States and the European Union. At the moment, it appears that the Turkish state makes efforts to try to accomodate a certain liberty for the Kurdish people, given the fact that the fanatism of the minority is not an issue that can be played with, according to the Prome Minister (the Economist, 2010).

At the same time though, Turkey has ensured that both the U.S. And Iraq support their intervention against the terrorist attacks of the Kurdish PKK. This support came as an obvious reaction to the fact that the PKK is viewed as a terrorist group and the Iraqi officials are afraid of the potential the PKK may develop in Northern Iraq where the Kurdish population is important. Thus, there are pressures from all allies.