Turkey's unguarded flank
From the BBC. Inside Turkey's Kurdish south,
By my math, that's some pretty complicating news to Turkey.
(Also: Another article stating that the Iraqis and Americans are offering the Turks virtually nothing to stop the PKK.)
The south-eastern flank of the country is a Kurdish heartland where most of the nation's 20 million Kurds live.
Kurdish political leaders will tell you (in private) that at least 80% of their people support the rebels and are proud if a family member is "living in the mountains."
By my math, that's some pretty complicating news to Turkey.
(Also: Another article stating that the Iraqis and Americans are offering the Turks virtually nothing to stop the PKK.)
posted by mikevotes at
8:40 AM
4 Comments:
20,000,000 Turkish Kurds! Isn't that like the entire population of Iraq!? 7% of the population of the US.
That's a lot of hate to have stewing on your back burner.
By
-epm, at 9:29 AM
This is the proof that the Middle East is far more complicated than Republicans ever imagined.
Take out Saddam, discover the myriad ethnic/sectarian struggles seething beneath the surface. Take on the sectarian forces, discover that they go beyond Iraq's borders, into ally and enemy territory alike. Establish a democracy, discover that the populace opposes your foreign policy objectives.
It's not a situation that lends itself to the use of a blunt instrument, but that is all Bush is capable of wielding. It also makes his "you're either with us or against us" mentality absolutely irrelevant. This is a case where our allies have interests that go against our own and where our "enemies" have interests that coincide with ours.
Dig deeper and you'll find divisions within the Kurdish diaspora that further complicate things. All Bush really wants is to set up regimes that are willing to let Israel dominate the region, but instead he is getting tangled up in all the complicating factors. It's called a quagmire.
By
Todd Dugdale , at 11:58 AM
EPM, that's what I keep thinking. That's not 20 million combatants, but still, that's an awfully large and dispersed hostile population at your back.
What sort of troop commitment would be required to keep that population at bay? And could you even?
....
Todd, That is a great sentence.
"This is a case where our allies have interests that go against our own and where our "enemies" have interests that coincide with ours."
And, as a broader point, what we're seeing is the unmaking of the previous imperial model for a new one.
The 19th and early 20th century imperialist model (British, French, Belgian, etc)was to prop up a minority giving them power and wealth, but leaving them dependent on the imperialist power for independence. When these situations reverse, they are frquently very dirty.
The US model is to install "democracy" so that the bribe structure remains the same, but the targets are allowed to change.
By
mikevotes, at 1:48 PM
'The US model is to install "democracy" so that the bribe structure remains the same, but the targets are allowed to change.'
I don't think the model is really that different. Exploit divisions and weaken the target. It should be done with a happy face of course.... 'We've come to help you.'
By
Anonymous, at 9:35 PM
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