The PKK was born as a reaction to the authotarian and racist policies of the Turkish republic in the early 1980s, Since then around 40.000 people have died. However the Turkey of today is so much different from the Turkey of the 1980s. Modern Turkey is an emerging powerhouse, one that has the potential to become a regional power. With this in mind Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party has for several years been working to neutralize the military's political influence, quell the Kurdish insurgency and to expand the party's political support. Whats interesting here is that these three goals are interconnected. By engaging in political negotiations with the PKK, the government was able to undermine the military's force-based approach to the conflict and thereby diminish the military's overall influence in Turkish politics.