henri barkey, director of the middle east program at the wilson center, david l. philips, author of "the kurdish spring: a new map of the middle east." i am pleased to have all of them on the program. mr. ambassador, i begin with you and your understanding of many things turkish. what do you think is going on? you heard from brett mcgurk as a bit of history. where do you think the turks are coming from and why are they now allowing the united states to use their bases to conduct air strikes in syria and iraq? >> i think a couple of things have led to this development. maybe three. there is been persistent american diplomatic engagement with the turks, of course and there has been a certain amount of cooperation all along despite the failure to have a strategic meeting of the minds. but that engagement has been there and skillful, i have to say, since i left. beyond that though, i think i.s.i.s. made a very bad mistake. if they didn't direct the attacks on turkey, then at least the inspiration seems to have been there. that seemed to have sealed the enmity of the t

henri barkey of the wilson center and david philips of columbia university.pleased to have them on this program. mr. ambassador, i began with you. your understanding of many things turkish. where do you think the turks are coming from and why are they allowing the united states to use their bases for airstrikes in syria and iraq? guest: a couple of things. there has been persistent engagement with the turks and a certain amount of collaboration all along despite a failure to have a meeting of the minds. the engagement has been skillful. beyond that, i think isis made a bad mistake. if they did not direct the attacks on turkey, the inspiration has been there. that is sealed the enmity of the turks towards isis. isis took 40 turkish officials hostage over a year ago. that was a gross humiliation of the turks, and they have not forgotten that. the enmity was there and unleashed last week with a terrorist attack last week. and then there are politics behind some of this as well having gone through an election with controversy about syria policy. charlie: stephen,