Conflict Scalation Study case

According to the news these past days, a US jet entered Turkey's air space this week.
Apparently, the US did not informed their Turkish counterpart on the issue for some three to four hours.
At the same time that its tanks line up in the south-eastern border, Ankara rejects the US violation of Turkey's sovereign territory.
And to add up to the situation, suspicions that the US will hand security command in northern Iraq to peshmergas have caused big controversy in the country.

Are US and Turkey, allies for 50 years, strategic partners in NATO, undergoing low profile eye-poking?
Obviously yes.
But as in any other case, we presume the pinching in this case has been meticulously calculated in order to not upset completely the other side.
What we cannot yet see the light at the end of the tunnel... are we soon to touch ground?
... how long are American-Turkish relations going to keep deteriorating?

Do you have the answers?

Tuesday pictures

The After-blast

22.00, Ankara.
From the top of Çankaya Hill the night is bright. Lit up with the millions of bulbs that give this city some kind of appeal it lacks from 6.00 to 21.00, the air in Çankaya is fresh and the view of the city amazing.
Just a few miles away from here, down Cinnah Caddesi, through Atatürk Bulvari and Kizilay, all the way to Ulus, the air becomes dry, dense, dirty... and the view turns into a tragic display of broken glass and torn iron.

People are still trying to get a grip on what went wrong today in Ulus.

Just turn on your TV and this is what you'll see: 5 people dead, 4 turks and 1 pakistani. 60 injured, 3 of whom in very serious condition, spread through several hospitals around the capital.
Nobody is in custody yet, but all the big wigs have already been there, all the theories have been exposed, and all the possible explanations considered. Yet nothing is sure and nobody is comfortable talking about what went wrong today in Ulus.

And that is something that has kept us wondering for a long time. It has been a tragic time for Turkey, it has been a horrible situation for all of us who live in this country, and hundreds of people have literally gone through hell this evening.

And still, it is hard to find someone really willing to talk about it. About what went wrong today in Ulus...

What went wrong?! What is going on?!

Blast in Ulus

So just one week after starting this blog, when things looked a lot calmed down, and i am sure not many people were expecting to hear about a bomb blast in the heart of Turkey's capital, it happened.
I wasn´t expecting it. I could not imagine I would hear about a bomb in a bus stop in the middle of the populous, working class Ulus district.

As we were listening to the news,we all hoped it was just gas leak or some kind of tragic accident. But police sources have stated that remains of explossive have been found near a bus stop, of a sort called A 40.

So far 6 people have been declared dead and more than 50 people have been reported injured.
Of course, figures are expected to keep changing along the evening. Hopefully they will not increase.

From the Hills of Ankara

Today we celebrate the birth of a blog that will be dedicated to Turkey, their politics and their society. Time will prove if we are right to celebrate or not, but we are a bunch of optimistic fellows here.
We intend to provide easy access and debate on news and topics from the insiders' point of view, as well as a frame on the perceptions the rest of the world holds about Turkey.

Our posts will be at least weekly. Although the periodicity may vary as long as we have to earn a living.

Since we are trying to create a participative debate forum we will try to keep our post entries as unbiased as humanly possible. However, even renowned publications have their own editorial guidelines and so do we. Try to forgive us.