have not been good relations between ankara and cairo. ankara does not have extensive economic interests in egypt but it does have extensive interests inoth bya andyrias well as in syria and particular a certain amount of prestige invested in the assad regime. >> rose: okay but... go aad. >> just to wrap up, in essence thturks have looked not as masters of the region but as i said befuddled and mall adroit in dealing with the demandsover millions of arabs who live in more open and free societies. >> in other words some have suggested they're on the wrong side of history in certain instances. >> that's precisely the case. after all, a.k.p. is supposed to be this democratic muslim society but nevertheless they've lined up essentially-- at least in the beginning-- with qaddafi and dragged their feet on libya and theyeep looking for solutions in sere war that include assad himself just as he is, in fact, using tanks to shell residential neighborhoods in cities in syria. >> there's been this pro sdwlaex the arab spring a butch of dominos that

but this isn't ankara or istanbul. this is rural pennsylvania. erick stakelbeck investigates the fetullah gulen movement.

realignment of the middle east,: had tonight, we begin a series of conversations taped last week in ankarand istanbul." prime minister recep tayyip erdogan. he was a highly successful and popular mayor of istanbul in the late 1990s. he is a devout muslim and was jailed briefly for anti-secular rhetoric in 1999. in 2001, he founded the justice in development partly, also known as the a.k.p. it promised topursue e.u. membership and liberalize rkey's economy. a year later it won a landslide victory. it gains gairnd more than two-thirds of the parliament. in 2007, his party won again, and he returned as prime minister. he is now in the middleave heated campaign for reelection. the elections take place on june 12. polls suggest of a.k.p. is on course to win a third term in power, making turkey the longest serving single-party government. the main option party, c.h.p., is expected to get around 28% of the vote. erdogan's campaign is all about the future, specifically the year 2023,hen turkey will commemore the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the modern republic. he has promised to draft a

. >> rose: turkey said to me in a conversation in ankara about four weeks ago, "we don't consider hamas a terrorist organization. >> that's right. they do not. >> rose: can other countries play a role here? can turkey play a role? >> yes. turkey can play a role. turkey played a significant role in trying to encourage syria and israel negotiations in 2008. and made significant advance which is unfortunately were disrupted and ended when the gaza operation began in 2008 and weave encouraged turkey to be involved more now. right now, of course, there's no prospect of any movement on syria given what is occurring in that country but we think turkey can play a significant role and we think one of the real issues... i mentioned earlier the increasing international isolation of israel which is very harm to feel israel and very bad for us, turkey's a good example. two two years ago turkey and israel had goods relations. economic, military and otheise. that's deteriorated sharply now in part due to this conflict. >> rose: in part because of the flotilla? >> the flotillaand some personality clash

edwards, i wonder how helpful our embassy in ankara has been for you, whether or not they have stepped up and made this an important issue? you mentioned the office of children's issues. if you might want to elaborate on that a little further. they should a passionate advocates. they may feel ill-advised or ill-equipped to provide legal advice that they have to fight for an american parents and american children's human rights. that seems to have not gotten through in the way it ought to, so if you perhaps want to elaborate further on that. please, mr. bermudez if he could begin. >> yes and just in response to your comments, you continue to demonstrate an uncanny intuition or knowledge of just really what this issue is about, and it really helps bring hope to me that there is someone in our congress that really understands this and is really working towards addressing this problem. i guess to address the various parts of your comments, one concern i have, i have read carefully both pieces of legislation that you have authored related to this issue. one concern that i would like to -- o

edwards i wonder how helpful our embassy in ankara has been for you, whether or not they have stepped in and made this an important issue. you mentioned the office of children's issues and if you might want to elaborate on that a little further. they should a passionate advocates. they may feel ill-advised or ill-equipped to provide legal advice, but they have to fight for american parents and american children's human rights and that seems to have not gotten through in the way it ought to. if you perhaps want to elaborate further on that, so please mr. bermudez if you could begin. >> yes and just as a response to your comment, you continue to demonstrate an uncanny intuition or knowledge of just really what this issue is about and it really helps bring hope to me that there is someone in our congress that really understands this and is really working towards addressing this problem. i guess to address the various parts of your comments, one concern i have, i have read carefully both pieces of legislation that you have authored related to this issue. one concern that i would like to,