Turkey and Ireland

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Alan Johnston presents insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world. In this edition, Jonathan Head reports from southeastern Turkey on the current state of Kurdish politics there, while Tracey Logan learns why cutting peat from Irish bogs has become so controversial. Teargas and turbulence in Turkey's southeast This Sunday, Turkey is holding parliamentary polls. The ruling party, the AKP, is seeking a third term in power, and one of the toughest issues it confronts is the enduring tension between the Turkish state and its Kurdish minority. Jonathan Head has been watching the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, trying to shore up his party's vote in the Kurdish heartland. But he also talked to many young Kurds - and found they had little appetite for dealing with the Turkish state. Turf wars: Ireland battles the EU over peat cutting You see them all over the Irish midlands: long, dark strips carved into the bog lands. These are areas where the peat has been stripped off, often to be burnt in fireplaces all across the country. This cutting of the black turf has gone on for centuries. But environmentalists worry about the impact it's having on the bogs - and particularly on the flow of water through these delicate, sponge-like areas. As Tracey Logan explains, the peat-cutters now find themselves in a fight to preserve their ancient rights - while conservationist stress the fragility of the bogs' ecosystems.