Turkey has recalled its ambassador to Sweden following a vote by the Swedish parliament describing the killing of Armenians during the First World War as genocide. France did the same last year and a Congressional committee in the US did it last week. Turkey wants to enter the European Union but has an Islamist government so France and Germany are reluctant to admit Turkey as a member for fear of introducing an Islamic trojan horse inside Christian Europe. The army is intensely secular and toppled the previous Islamic party but Prime Minister Erdogan has been extremely clever not to push the army too hard. Instead he has resorted to small incremental gains for his party at the expense of the army. First there was objection to Mr. Gul being elected president but Mr. Erdogan stood firm and Mr. Gul was elected. Then he passed a law withdrawing objections to women students wearing the scarf in colleges if they so wanted. Recently there have been allegations of an attempted coup against the government and senior retired army officers have been arrested. So far no senior serving officer has been charged. Every time the army has yielded its power and image have suffered a decline making the Islamists stronger. Meanwhile Turkey's accession talks with the EU are not due to start until 2015 and Turkey has been forced to recognise Greek Cyprus, although with conditions. With US forces withdrawing from Iraq Kurds in the north of the country will be angling for independent Kurdistan helped by oil money. Are all these events connected? Who knows but it sure is interesting.