Thursday, December 13, 2018

Turkey Steps into Dark Territory

Turkey said it is about to go into the area east of the Euphrates river in Syria and try to run the Kurds out of that land.  Typical of the way the Turks have been doing press releases, it appears in almost any news outlet that will publish the story, so there is no end of interpretation about this move.  Russia is happy to have Turkey help them out there.

To see where this is and how it affects the local people, the New York Times ran a good piece in August that has maps and good photos.  Their slant was the Kurds are still there because they have US help in removing ISIS. 

In the past, countries have used the Kurds as fighters  and then abandoned them to their enemies.  They want their own territory and they have it now so they don't want to give it up.  They just don't have the firepower to stay there without help. 

Turkey went into the northern areas a few months ago and they made many families move after they got in.  The Kurds are not going to be able to fight Turkey alone, and the US is not going to start a war with Turkey over some fighters in Syria.  So, Turkey will end up taking some of that territory, and making many enemies of the Kurds.  That will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Turkey sees these groups as terrorists.  If they are driven out of their territory, they will have few options to make a homeland for themselves.  They will fight. 

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