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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Turkish Deputy PM: friendship with Syria cannot continue with Hama 'atrocity'
2011-08-05
Perhaps this is why Turkey picked up the smuggled arms -- response to the insult when PM Erdogan's personal friend President al Assad didn't back off as instructed...
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#9  "Turkish Deputy PM: friendship with Syria cannot continue with Hama 'atrocity'"

Why not? It did before.
Posted by: Barbara   2011-08-05 21:27  

#8  while most of the Turkish actions against the PKK have been justified, the Turks have committed a few atrocities of their own in that conflict (and the PKK has committed a lot of atrocities)

About 40000 have died in that conflict (which is now about 20+ years old) of which about 10-20% are civilians.
Posted by: Lord Garth   2011-08-05 17:45  

#7  Or it might exist in the same way Lebanon exists.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2011-08-05 16:34  

#6  I'd bet that deep inside, Erdogan doesn't see a "Syria" existing in the future.
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2011-08-05 15:07  

#5  I guess Erdogan is figuring on a Sunni Syria dominated by Turkey, instead of an Alawite one bound to Iran.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2011-08-05 14:27  

#4  While I know the Turks aren't exactly open about the Armenian Genocide, I'm pretty sure all those involved are dead.
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2011-08-05 14:26  

#3  But it is modestly encouraging all the same to see the Turks call out the Syrians -- that's more than Obama is doing right now.

Given the Armenian genocides (~2m dead), which dwarfs anything both Assads have done by two orders of magnitude, I'm not sure the Turks have a leg to stand on. And the Turks weren't exactly fighting for their survival as a traditionally persecuted minority group.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2011-08-05 12:04  

#2  Sure, and it's not like we can know what's going on in Erdogan's mind and what nefarious motives he might have in all this. But it is modestly encouraging all the same to see the Turks call out the Syrians -- that's more than Obama is doing right now.
Posted by: Steve White   2011-08-05 11:53  

#1  Perhaps this is why Turkey picked up the smuggled arms -- response to the insult when PM Erdogan's personal friend President al Assad didn't back off as instructed...

Given that Assad is fighting for his life, and the survival of the Syrian Alawite community, I suspect he's not too concerned about prostrating himself before a Turk who's an Ottoman Caliph in his own mind.

Posted by: Zhang Fei   2011-08-05 11:30  

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