Hurriyet Daily News published an article by Verda Özer headlined "Time to face up to Kobane" devoted to the Kurdish issue.
"The resistance in Kobane and the following protests on Oct. 6-7 in Turkey have confronted us with the weaknesses of the peace process in Turkey, as well as the new reality in the region," the article begins.
"Ankara had been approaching the Kurdish question from a traditional, nation-state perspective, differentiating between the Kurds “inside and outside.” This attitude first changed during the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, which eventually made the Kurds in northern Iraq its closest ally in the region. Today, Kobane urges Turkey to form a similar bond with the Kurds in Rojava (northern Syria). The fact that Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan said “Syrian Kurds are our natural ally,” implies this awareness," the author writes.
"The Oct. 6-7 incidents have also revealed the disunity in the approach and rhetoric toward the peace process. There have been on one hand constructive, revisionist, calming statements and on the other hand, status-quo oriented, destructive statements coming from the government and the Kurdish party," the artile reads.
"This disunity has harmed the emerging confidence between the two sides, which at the end have most benefited the ones who aimed at sabotaging the peace process," the author fo the article believes. "Another weakness exposed is the government’s approach toward the Kurdish side. Government officials underlined the discrepancy between Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of PKK, and Kandil, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) main base in northern Iraq, by attributing positive adjectives to Öcalan, while demonizing Kandil. This attitude, however, enormously harms the peace process since different statements coming from different actors slow down the negotiations. Hence the government should not emphasize the existing discrepancy and instead address only one center."
"The incidents on October 6-7 have brought Turkey to a critical breaking point with the Kurds and the peace process. We owe the quick recovery to the fact that both sides embraced the process stronger than ever before. If we want to prevent future fractures, we need to face up to the weaknesses and new realities revealed by Kobane," the author concludes.
"New Russian Boldness Revives a Cold War Tradition: Testing the Other Side," an article with such a headlined was published by The New York Times.
"When the White House discovered in recent weeks that its unclassified computer systems had been breached, intelligence officials examined the digital evidence and focused on a prime suspect: Russia, which they believe is using its highly sophisticated cyber capabilities to test American defenses. But its tracks were well covered, and officials say they may never know for sure," the article begins.
"They have no doubt, however, about what happened this week on the edges of NATO territory in Europe. More than two dozen Russian aircraft, including four Tu-95 strategic bombers, flew through the Baltic and Black Seas, along the coast of Norway and all the way to Portugal, staying over international waters but prompting NATO forces to send up intercepting aircraft," the autrhor writes.
"Taken together, they represent the old and the updated techniques of Cold War signal-sending. In the Soviet era, both sides probed each other’s defenses, hoping to learn something from the reaction those tests of will created. In 2014, cyber is the new weapon, one that can be used with less restraint, and because its creators believe they cannot be traced and can create a bit of havoc without prompting a response," the author believes.
"In this case, the response was that the White House shut down use of some of its networks for lengthy periods — more an inconvenience than anything else, but a sign of the fragility of the system to sophisticated attacks," the article reads.
