For those of you who do not keep up with the news...

Turkey is going crazy. Its the subject of at least the top two news stories on each major news website. Let me give you the breakdown (not in any order of significance):

Story #1:

A committee in the House of Representatives is trying to get a bill pushed through Congress that basically says the Armenian genocide is real, it happened, and Turkey is the horrible country that did it. However you feel on the issue, this is a direct blow to Turkey. Armenia is a subject you do not bring up here. My favorite quote from the news stories is this: "Turkey obviously feels they are getting poked in the eye over something that happened a century ago and maybe this isn't a good time to be doing that." This quote pretty much epitomizes the intelligence of our US Congressmen. The person that said the above, whom shall remain nameless ;-) originally supported the bill, but has since changed his mind. Good call... Turkey's ambassador to the US was recalled for consultation last week and there is talk of shutting down the US base here in Turkey. Thanks Nanci Pelosi!

Story #2:

Parliament just passed a measure that allows the military to go into Iraq in order to take out the Kurds there. Everyone says no action will be taken immediately, but the measure gives the military up to a years time to invade Iraq. (so its going to happen while I am here) Not only will the invasion possibly destabilize northern Iraq (one of the few stabilized areas of that country), but Iraq feels Turkey's invasion will cause other countries in the area to deem it necessary to invade as well. Syria apparently said Turkey has a right to chase the Kurds due to all the killings. The PKK (Kurdish group) is considered a terrorist group, which Turkey is using as its main reason for going after them. They complain about the lack of support from the US and other terrorism fighting super powers, but I am pretty sure the US likes the Kurds in northern Iraq. Yet another strain on US-Turkey relations.

Story #3:

Parliament is voting on a big referendum on Sunday. A lot of the amendments deal with the presidency. You can read about it here:

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=86092

Story #4:

Theres no such thing as fall here... Its cold.

So story #4 isn't really a story, but it is quite frigid here.

Don't worry too much about the news. Most of Congress is now taking back their support of that bill and it would be silly for Turkey to invade Iraq right now. So no worries. :)

Sorry for the lack of pictures - blogger site is messed up currently.