This text is an attempt to study Turkey's national and secular identity in light of the challenges posed by Kurdish nationalism and political Islam.

Turkey has always been a crossroads: the point where East meets West, Europe meets Asia, and Christianity meets Islam. Turkey has also been a close and important American ally, but a series of converging political and strategic factors have now endangered its longstanding Western and democratic orientation. In Winning Turkey, two leading analysts explain this worrisome situation and present a plan for improving it. The stakes are clear. Turkey is the most advanced democracy in the Islamic world, bordering a number of the world's hotspots, including Iraq, Iran, and the Caucasus. It occupies the corridor between Western markets and Caspian Sea energy reserves. A stable, Western-oriented Turkey moving toward EU membership would provide a growing market for exports, a source of needed labor, a positive influence on the Middle East, and an ally in the war on terror. The picture has darkened, however, as rising anti-Americanism, deflated hopes for EU accession, civil-military tensions, and terrorist threats have destabilized an already volatile Turkish political system. Wi "nning Turkey d"esigns a plan to ease tensions in this critical part of the world. In addition to proposing a "grand bargain" between Turkey and the Kurds, it advocates greater support for increased liberalism and democracy, a renewed commitment by both Europe and Turkey to promote EU membership, a historic compromise with Armenia, and greater Western engagement with Turkish Cypriots.

Although identity related problems gained a new sense of urgency after Turkey's last military take-over in 1980, they are far from being products of the last two decades.
This text is an attempt to study Turkey's national and secular identity in light of the challenges posed by Kurdish nationalism and political Islam. The underlying premise of this work is that Kurdish nationalism and political Islam represent existential threats to Turkey's Kemalist military and political establishment. While any evidence, no matter how minor, of Kurdish nationalism is perceived as a major security threat to the nation-state's territorial and national integrity, Islamic sociopolitical and cultural activities are often considered as harbingers of a fundamentalist revolution.