Why weakened post-coup Turkey may drift from the West
Since the failed coup, it seems Turkey has developed an elaborate conspiracy theory blaming a triumvirate of Kurds, Gulenists and the "Supreme Mind" — the United States.
One month after the failed coup, Turkey’s east and southeast are being rocked by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) violence. A provincial center in the east, Elazig, witnessed a dramatic car bombing Aug. 18 that took the lives of three police officers and wounded 217 people. The PKK claimed responsibility.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and Chief of Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar rushed to the scene. That attack came just hours after a car bomb that targeted the police headquarters shook the eastern city of Van. While Yildirim was expressing the government's determination to fight terror and violence, the PKK ambushed a military convoy near the provincial center of Bitlis, which lies between Elazig and Van.
