On Feb. 5, the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC hosted a talk by Scholar-in-Residence Meliha Altunisik, an associate professor at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. Dr. Altunisik's research is on the triangular relationship between Turkey, the U.S., and Iraq. As debate over the impending war on Iraq has been raging in all quarters of Turkish society, her speech addressed the prevalent attitudes toward the war within important political categories: opinion makers (academia, media, civil society organizations); foreign and security policy elites; and the general public.
Turkey's opinion makers are deeply divided on the issue of war, said Altunisik. The small …