Southern-eastern Turkey where all of this is taking place is as middle eastern as it gets. So in this context is an apt comparison.
Playing both sides doesn't have to mean directly arming and training people who kill innocent civilians for not being religious enough, or engaged in any other sort of extreme violence against non-combatants.
> It (of Sunni thought) began as an oppositional force against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), though later they have targeted both the PKK and people who they considered to be with low morals (people who drank alcohol, wore mini-skirts etc.).
Turkey is part of the Middle East by any useful definition, including Wikipedia’s [1]. The parts of Turkey where these groups hail from are also the parts that are the closest to the Iraq, Syria and Iran borders.
Err, sure it is. Geographically and politically, Turkey is associated with the Middle East. The German term "Naher Osten" (Near East, because it's not that far from Europe) described the Osman empire's area that were outside of Europe. This is the first time I hear somebody argue that Turkey isn't part of the Middle East - what leads to you to believe that?
