ABSTRACT
Turkey inhabits a new world. Within a few years of Mikhail Gorbachev's coming to power, Turkey's geopolitical environment began to change in three out of four directions of the compass. To the northwest, truly independent Balkan states have emerged, which are in the process of creating a new Balkan state system. Change comes first in the rapidly advancing process of democratization within the country. The origins of active democratic politics go back to the opening of the political process by President Inonu, leading to the first open elections in 1955. The Kurdish issue had grown more prominent in Turkey over the past decade, however. The Iran-Iraq war dragged Kurdish guerrilla elements in Iran and Iraq into the conflict, inevitably touching the Kurdish population of Turkey as well. A new sense of ethnicity may be emerging among the Turks themselves.
