As we enter the month of November and Turkey Day approaches, there is another turkey that you should be thinking about: Turkey, the country. Over the past couple of weeks, Turkey has been appearing in the headlines more and more.

With all of this talk about Armenians and Kurds, Turkish troops, U.S. troops, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and increasing tensions, like most of the rows in the Middle East, the issue of Turkey succeeds in being quite complicated. However, as one of our closest allies in the Iraq war, it is imperative to understand what is going on.

Turkey first started appearing in the headlines in early October with the looming Armenian genocide resolution on the doorstep of Congress. During World War I, the Ottoman Empire slaughtered more than 1 million Armenians in what would be known as the first genocide of the 20th century (the Holocaust being the second).

In today’s world, however, political agendas count for everything, while the suffering of humanity is usually a blip on the political radar. Turkey refuses to acknowledge the genocide, for fear that it could incur calls for financial and land reparations from Armenians. Surprisingly, though, our Congress passed the bill acknowledging the genocide, joining 21 other countries that recognize the actions of Turkey in 1915.

OK. So what is the problem?

The problem is that our president, George W. Bush, and our secretary of defense, Robert Gates, strongly opposed the passage of that bill. Why? Because Turkey is not only our closest ally in the Middle East right now, it is our most important. Approximately 70 percent of the air cargo going into Iraq is flown through Turkish air space.

So the dilemma took shape: Pass the resolution and complicate things for our troops in Iraq, or take a stand in the international community as a champion for human rights. On Oct. 11, the bill was passed 27-21 by the congressional House Foreign Affairs Committee. So Turkey did something that it had wanted to do for a very long time: pursue the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in northern Iraq.

The plot thickened.

For those who are unfamiliar with the breakdown of the groups in Iraq, know that the country has three predominant groups: Shi’ias, Sunnis and ethnic Kurds. Ethnic Kurds reside at the intersection of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria, a region often referred to as Kurdistan. For about a century now, they have been clamoring for their own country, something that Turkey fears, because if you look at a map of the Kurdish region, about 75 percent of it is located in southeast Turkey. A Kurdish state equals a major loss of land for Turkey, something that no country really likes.

For years, Turkey has been pursuing Kurdish separatist groups, such as the the Kurdistan Workers Party. So when we passed the Armenian genocide resolution, Turkey decided to play hardball. They declared that they would begin military operations in northern Iraq, where the Kurdistan Workers Party has a very strong foothold that it uses to launch strikes against Turkey.

According to the latest military report by General David Petraeus, northern Iraq is the most stable region of the country. The last thing that Bush, Gates and Condoleezza Rice wanted was someone messing with the only real progress they have made in Iraq. A resolution was later passed in Congress acknowledging the Kurdistan Workers Party as a terrorist organization, as a hollow attempt to soften relations with Turkey.

What does this all mean, though?

Iraq contains terrorists that, according to our commander in chief, pose a serious threat to national security. He believes that this threat justified a war and an occupation. Northern Iraq contains terrorists that, according to Abdullah Gül, the president of Turkey, pose a serious threat to Turkish national security. He believes that this threat justifies military action.

However, because it is not in the best interest of the United States, we vehemently object. We created a scary precedent in 2003 when we invaded Iraq. It seems that our flawed reasoning is biting us in our rears. We now live in a world where military action is justified by any threat can be labeled terrorism. This is a problem that will face many administrations to come, and I can only hope that we will soon have a leader with enough reason and conviction to address this problem.

George Caputa is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences.