BY YILMAZ OZTUNA
TURKIYE- Following the Sacrifice Feast, two important elections will influence Turkey. The Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) congress will be full of discussions. Probably CHP leader Deniz Baykal will be reelected as the leader. However, the opposition within the party will continue. We hope the CHP won’t cause another party to arise. Turkey needs a strong and modern social democracy. However, such a thing isn’t likely to happen in a short period of time.
In addition, there will be elections in Iraq this week. The US will claim that these elections will provide Iraq with democracy. However, elections won’t bring peace to Iraq. Instead, conflicts within the country will continue. Shiites and Sunnis won’t be able to draw a border on central and southern Iraq. Shiites will be strong following the elections, but Sunnis will resist and bloody days will be experienced. Tsunami hit Aceh, on the north tip of the island of Sumatra, terribly the most. Aceh was a part of the Ottoman Empire on the east in the second half of the 16th century. We sent fleets to Aceh Sultanate a few times. Many Turks stayed there and worked as admirals. The first page of newspapers wouldn’t cover such history and some people ignore this region. I’m writing this to remind these people of this fact. This week the new US government will start to determine its Syrian and Iraqi policies and the entire world will be interested in the issue.