 |
|||
|
|
|
 Kurds Want to Give Turkey a Taste of SpringPosted on Jun 9, 2011
Turkey is no Libya or Syria in terms of repression, but the country has a few million disgruntled Kurds who would like more autonomy. One Kurdish political leader is threatening civil disobedience if the government fails to enact a new constitution that meets Kurdish demands. Turkey has been fighting a war with some of its Kurdish population since the 1980s, with more than 30,000 casualties, according to the CIA. In 2005, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said “the Kurdish problem is my problem” and promised to improve relations with the ethnic minority. He may be taking too long. —PZS
Advertisement Previous item: U.S. Presses Covert Airstrikes in Yemen Next item: Poll: Are You Worried That Facebook Recognizes Your Face? New and Improved CommentsWe are launching a major overhaul of our comments section. In addition to more robust spam filtering and moderation, new features include the ability to rate other comments, sort how they are displayed and respond directly via e-mail or in a thread. Unfortunately, commenters will lose their existing Truthdig identities. It's a pain, we know, but on the plus side you will now be able to log in with a plethora of options, including Google, Twitter, Facebook and Disqus accounts. Before launching this system we spent months in discussion with our top commenters. We listened to the feedback and we hope you like what we've come up with. Please direct any problems or concerns to us via our contact page. |
Truthdiggers of the Week: 400,000 Canadians Launching the ‘Maple Spring’
Email
Print
Share
Digg
Facebook
TwitThis
StumbleUpon
Reddit
YahooBuzz
Email
BlinkList
del.icio.us
Fark
Furl
Google
LinkedIn
Mixx
MyShare
NewsVine
Propeller
SphereIt
Technorati
YahooMyWeb
Newsletter 
Become a Fan
Follow Us
Subscribe
Tags|Bazaar|Podcast|About Us|Contact Us|User Agreement|Privacy Policy|FAQ: Comments and Moderation
Copyright © 2012 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
By doughboy, June 10, 2011 at 8:51 am Link to this comment
The fallout from the collapse of Bashar Assad will contribute to
Report thisTurkey’s Kurdish problem. Those directing the rebellion are
masking the chaos that will ensue. Rejecting the threat of
sectarian/ethnic violence, they claim that it is an excuse used by
the present regime to frighten their populace and neighbors. But
looking at Turkey, the potential of confrontation with a Kurdish
community with irredentist aspirations will have grave
consequence. Turkish-Kurdish clashes date back for decades.
Turkey has sent its army into former Iraqi territory in pursuit of
Kurdish insurgents. The highest concentration of Kurds in Syria lie
on the border with Turkey. The majority of them were displaced
from Turkey years ago, and the resentment of loss of homes and
lands has not been forgotten. One of the elements that helped to
cement the positive Turkish-Syrian relations was Damascus’
assistance in controlling this latent problem. In the wake of
Assad’s fall, there will be no central authority to insure the quiet
of the border. In addition, there will be no monitoring of the Iraqi-
Syrian border for the transfer of arms and/or fighters entering
Syria and using it as base for undertakings. Turkey would then
face a hostile Syrian border, a hostile Iraqi border, and probably a
hostile internal community. As for the thought that the
“democracy movement” in Syria would use tanks and machine
guns on the Kurdish civilians is just too “Baathist.”
By Blackspeare, June 9, 2011 at 11:40 am Link to this comment
Ah, the Kurds again——one of my favorite topics. The longest existing indigenous people in the world today without ever having a nation of their own are the Kurds. I surely thought that when Saddam Hussein was eliminated, the Kurds would make their move, but I suspect the USA got in the way. The only real problem is they have no outlet to the sea, but as I like to say, if not now, then when?!
Report this