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Out of date, I think. Given the huge number of conflicting reports, I'm not certain how reliable any of this info is. I suspect that this was a demand of the Turkish military and perhaps the executive branch, not that of their legislature which is the present block to our deployment on Turkish bases.

Turkey is plainly in political turmoil. I try to avoid being too harsh on them and have actually always admired them as an ally, more than Israel or Britian even. I hope the present period will prove to be the exception to the rule in Turkish-American relations.

But this talk of annexing Iraqi oil under a flimsy Ottoman pretext seems like nothing more than a bid for the Axis Of Weasels and Russia to support Turkey carving a chunk out of Iraq when we attack. I don't think it's going to work. The Turks learned a few times in the last century the price of choosing the wrong allies and doing so for the wrong reasons. One can readily grasp from Turkish writing that those lessons are not forgotten. The question is whether they'll pay attention to history.

Turkey's former moderate and secular governing party would never have floated such ideas publicly, never carried out its negotiations in a way that left everyone looking soiled by it. I question whether the new Islamist party in Parliament is capable of governing or whether they'll be overthrown by the military in the next few years.

It's quite remarkable to hear a Turkish leader seriously speak of annexing or in some other way, seizing, control of any portion of the national wealth of the sovereign territory of Iraq.

Naturally, considering the economic conditions of Turkey, Germany, France and Russia explains a lot about their interest in controlling and exploiting any oil they can get hold of.