PEE ESS: This is also Turkey's way of sending another message to Syria, which has historically been linked to the PKK.
The Turks
sent a message to Syria 4 days ago:
A warning to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad today, from his country's big, powerful and formerly friendly neighbor Turkey. The Turkish foreign minister, Ahmed Davutoglu, says that he has told President Assad: Stop military operations against civilians immediately and unconditionally. Davutoglu told a news conference in Ankara, the Turkish capital: This is our final word to the Syrian authorities. If these operations do not stop, there will be nothing left to say about the steps that would be taken.
It isn't that I support the bombing of citizen areas or anything or I'm a pinko sympathizer. It's just that Turkey has a horrible history in its short life of unleashing the most inhumane acts against ethnic minorities. Hell, Turkey has created more refugees than the Israeli-Arab wars have, but in the Arab world, Turkey is considered 'moderate'. Turkey's infractions against the Kurds is a huge point of contention in regards to its applications to be part of the EU Commission.
I'm sorry, but I strongly disagree. The Armenian ethnic cleansing occurred in 1915-18, before Türkiye became a country in 1923. But, while it was horrible, I refuse to view it through 2011 morals and ethics. This was a backward, barbaric place in 1915 and there was no societal aversion to what we now denounce as genocide.
There has been a "keeping down" of Kurds throughout their history, but it
is Turkish land. The Kurds have no rights there. So I don't understand what "infractions" against the Kurds.
The Kurds in eastern Türkiye are not unlike our influx of Mexicans in the Southwest. How would Arizonians and Texans feel if Mexicans wanted to carve out bits of their states as 'Mexican territory',
create Mexican communities, broadcast and teach Spanish instead of English, etc.? I see a lot of parallels.