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| Europe |
| Turks Prepping To Get Medieval on Kurds? |
| 2005-03-29 |
| Ultranationalist groups are being organized in cells and provided with smuggled weapons in and around central Anatolian settlements where citizens of Kurdish origin are living, according to sources close to the security apparatus. Those crazy Turks! Either they're denying one massacre, or they're planning another one! (via TKS) |
| Posted by:Robert Crawford |
| #7 Or the goats and sheep, Sgt. Mom. |
| Posted by: anon 2005-03-29 12:18:07 PM |
| #6 "At the very least, the Turks won't have anything to fear from the UN" Well, the grown-ups won't have anything to fear from the UN. Dunno about the kids... |
| Posted by: Sgt. Mom 2005-03-29 12:15:33 PM |
| #5 Even against the PKK this might be unwise because attacks could so easily be manipulated to look like attempted genocide. At the very least, the Turks won't have anything to fear from the UN. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-03-29 10:42:54 AM |
| #4 If they start "against the PKK", the odds that it would stop with just the PKK are pretty slim. And while it sounds unconnected, I would expect a Turkish pogrom against the Kurds to drive up the likelihood of the Kurds wanting to split from Iraq. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-03-29 9:53:22 AM |
| #3 Even against the PKK this might be unwise because attacks could so easily be manipulated to look like attempted genocide. Just the type of thing that might type the Iraqi Kurds into insisting on independence rather than trusting a semi-secular Islamic state. If I remember correctly the Turks were dead against a Kurdish state so such a move could be counter-productive. Personally if I was Turkey I would cooperate with the US to carve up Syria. Convince my own Turks to move out of the the hinterland of Turkey and into the new Syria/Iraq Kurdish areas. I'd also create a semi-autonomous state in Turkish Kurdistan to (1) buy off the Kurds and get them to join the Turkish military (2) create somewhat of a buffer between Turkey and Iran (3) create a lever to screw with Iran. (4) Allow me to determine where the lines would be drawn rather then wait for the a crisis when such decisions wouldn't be mine. Of course that's me, an American, without the historical and pride attachments that have kept the issue unresolved for so long and so bloody a time. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2005-03-29 9:50:11 AM |
| #2 I wonder if that Turkmen strip border between Kurdistan and the South is going to pan out. That really is an intriguing idea all way round. In a way, it is like princes exchanging sons, giving each motivation to behave: everyone is motivated to stay friendly instead of continually conspiring against the others. Thus the group can instead focus on those princes outside of the group, in this case, Syria, Iran and the Arab South. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-03-29 9:45:47 AM |
| #1 Against the PKK makes sense. Against any Kurd is insane -- and asking for far more trouble than they seem able to handle. If the little PKK band gives them nightmares, just imagine the fuse these idiots could light... Turkey's real worst fears come to fruition: an independent Kurdistan - including of a large chunk of southern Turkey. The Govt fools had better rein in the other fools - y'know, the ones who've made a mockery of Atatürk and the Kemalists by electing an Islamist Govt. Their BS bravado will backfire. Amazing how stupid people can be. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-03-29 9:17:43 AM |
