Turkey seems to be surrounded again by its rivals and critics. As the latest development in the world arena suggests that its 'sensitivity' and long service to the American and European causes are no longer being recognised.
Awarding Nobel Prize to the dissident writer Orhan Pamuk would definitely bring back to limelight both Turkey's high-handedness against the Kurdish minorities as also it's shoddy human rights records. It must be noted that the writer was incarcerated by the Turkish authorities on dubious charges relating to 'insulting Turkishness', as he had dared to pin point Turkey's role in Armenian massacre during World War I. Not only that, the initiative by the French Parliament to 'acknowledge' Turkish complicity in the Armenian genocide has been considered as back stabbing by the country aspiring for EU's membership. It has been strongly reckoned in the country of 70 million population that these steps are meant to create roadblocks on xenophobic lines to prevent Turkey's entry.
Whatever the merits of the proposed law, it must be realised that Turkey can be a model for the Western World to disprove that its war on terror is not essentially a war on Islam.