Turkish forces conducted a two-day ground operation in Iraq earlier this week, penetrating as far as 3 miles into Iraqi territory in order to target Kurdish groups. The Turkish military campaign comes as Iraq expelled Turkey’s state oil operator from an exploration contract, though analysts linked that move more to Baghdad’s notoriously byzantine energy politics than to Turkey’s invasion of autonomous Kurdish territories in Iraq. Meanwhile Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) faced criticism over its passage of legislation authorizing war with Syria, and Turkish media bemoaned the country’s political environment as having “hit an all-time low.”

[Photo: P.H.1 T.D. USN / Wikimedia]