Turkey is not bluffing

[PartTimePongo]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2942759.stm

If you think Turkey wouldn't flout international opinion by sending its military into Iraq, look at the way it fought the Kurdish insurrection, and think again.

Turkey believes that a Kurdish state would spark separatist sentiment only recently crushed, that once again its borders are threatened by events beyond its control, that the outside world does not care or understand.

 

[Shotgun]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2942759.stm

If you think Turkey wouldn't flout international opinion by sending its military into Iraq, look at the way it fought the Kurdish insurrection, and think again.

Turkey believes that a Kurdish state would spark separatist sentiment only recently crushed, that once again its borders are threatened by events beyond its control, that the outside world does not care or understand.

I agree PTP, and thr worst thing is that Turkey would be right.

Kurdish demands for a separate state has undermined the Turk Government for years and they are another form of our very own IRA. They have no real basis on what to base their ideas, but Turkey would have to pay the price. Imagine Kurds with oil money and weapons in the near future and what it means for Turkey in terms of security?

It's all very well the Yanks saying this and that, but for fecks sake, this situation isn't on their doorstep is it?

 

[vespa]

what wrong with goving the kurd in turkey autonomus self government   ??? there is no real threat isn't there ? the human rights abuse is counter productive and will not help their entry into the EU also i never really trusted those slimy turks .

 

[flash_to_bang]

Sad, I know, but i am something of an SME on Turkey so...
Firstly the Turkish Government does what the "Commitee for National Security" (ie theArmy) tells it, so there must have been very strong military objections to allowing the Yanks in.
The Turkish government of all types, as well as the Army, dislike the Kurds for a number of reasons-not just the long and bloody war.  The whole Turkish state is founded on the principals that all are welcome within the borders of the country as long as they wish to be Turks.  This was the guiding tenet that Ataturk used to establish the Republic in 1923.  The government attitude is that by seeking greater autonomy the Kurds are threatening the very basis on which the Turkish state exists.

I'll admit I was surprised that the Turks didn't let the Yanks in, but they would only have acted that way if there was some advantage to them.

It will be intereting to see how things work out, but rest assured the Turks are willing and able to strike at any threat to their national security

 

[vespa]

shut the turks out of any involvment in post war iraq , including kurdish states and reconstruction contracts and don't let them in the EU