BRICS summit April 2011 participants: Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh, President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, President of China Hu Jintao, President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff, President of South Africa Jacob Zuma. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Several stories on Turkey today covering cultural, political and economic issues involving the increasingly important country, which recently celebrated 60 years of membership in NATO and has been very involved in crises throughout the region.

Foreign Policy Magazine has a very interesting article by Andrew Finkel that discusses several facets of life in Turkey. The article is likely to educate readers and incite some heated debate as well.

Balkans.com has an interesting post about Turkey and speculation about it joining BRICS, the group of “growth market” countries, including Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, that are asserting themselves in the world economy.

Enduring America has a post about Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s trip to China, starting in the Uyghur Autonomous region and then proceeding to Beijing and Shanghai.

Enduring America also has a post about Turkey’s role as the host of on-again off-again back on-again talks between Iran and P5+1 countries (U.S., Britain, France, Russia, and Germany).

CNN, CBC, and Euronews carried stories on the fighting near and on the Syria-Turkey border, which led to the wounding of several people, including two Turkish officials.