Stephen Starr, The Star (Canada)
Turkey is by far the West’s most important partner in the Middle East today. The European Union has pleaded with Turkey to stop the flow of refugees north through the Balkans, offering billions of Euro and relaxed visa procedures for Turks in return. For America and its NATO partners, Ankara’s airbases close to the Syrian border are crucial to its air war against the Islamic State jihadist group. Yet internally, the country is falling apart. Military operations in the Kurdish southeast are besieging whole towns and radicalizing young men and women to commit deadly suicide bombings.