Ankara could misplay its hand again

Semih Idiz

Oct 3, 2017

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's leaves after an interview with Reuters Editor-in-Chief Steve Adler and Reuters Chief Correspondent Parisa Hafezi at The Peninsula hotel on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in Manhattan, New York, U.S. September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Darren Ornitz - RC1C6B1C2FF0 — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan leaves after an interview with Reuters at The Peninsula Hotel on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, Sept. 21, 2017. — REUTERS/Darren Ornitz

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani appears to have painted himself into a corner with his independence referendum. Turkey is more than happy with this and pleased that the KRG referendum was rejected by the international community.

However, Barzani has let the Kurdish genie out of the bag, and Ankara will have to manage this with diplomatic subtlety to not end up with another regional debacle on its hands.