Turkey hosts 4 million Syrian displaced persons, paid by the European Union. Europe has given up active use of force and prefers to pay off local warlords. It seriously reminds me of the Chinese Empire in its decadence, when it followed a policy of paying off Mongol tribes. It worked, till it did not. Letting the Syrian refugees to move on to Europe is Turkey's strongest card against that aging continent. Now, there is a new entity in the Upper Euphrates, the Kurd's country, which is a mortal danger for Turkey, as half of its population is ethnic Kurd. And the weakness of Syrian government has allowed the Northern Coast to be occupied by the Russians, and the North East by the USA. The current Turkish incursion to NE Syria is being done with the hegemon, the USA's permission.
In this complicated situation, Turkey started a war. It is a truism that it is easy to start wars, but difficult to stop them. Fortunately Israel is not involved.
P.S. Netaniyahu condemns Turkish invasion of Kurdish areas and promises humanitarian assistance to the brave Kurdish people.
Operation Olive Branch....
ReplyDeleteOperation Peace Spring....
Operation wet fart
Shortly after I wrote the above, Erdogan demanded European support for the operation. One could conclude that Ozan Ceyhun is the idea man of Erdogan, or that he is very closely familiar with Erdogan's thought. After so much war and drought, the Hasaka must be a desert.
DeleteNo, Hasaka is a very fertile part of Syria. Turkish industrialist have plans for that area - they are building dams upstream of Euphrates and Tigris, and are interested in taking over the downstream areas for agricultural and industrial development.
DeleteKurds and borders get in the way, in the 70s the Turkish state tried to settle educated, middle-class turks from istanbul and developed areas to become teachers in that south-eastern area. Kurds didn't like that and Kurdish nationalist militias (called left-wing worker internationalists, I never understood why as Kurds don't do any work in Turkey) started killing those settlers.
It's basically the same story every where in the world.
Always was. Always will be.
Humans have plans, but Nature and God have other plans.
DeleteWell, Israel has decided for the Kurds.
DeleteWill Israelis go to war for Turkey and will your soldiers sacrifice their lives for Kurdish people?
DeleteNo?
Then you have not decided for the Kurds. The average Israeli probably thinks Kurds are just a random group of middle eastern savages.
First, we do not sacrifice soldiers for any cause. Jew don't do human sacrifice. We only fight for our survival.
DeleteSecond, the average Israeli is very much aware of the Kurdish people. You don't know, but there are about 100,000 Jews from Kurdistan living in Israel. I had two workers from Kurdistan, they were not specially bright, but they were decent. They loved and missed the Kurdish mountains. We feel empathy with the heroic Kurdish people. On the other hand, we have nothing against Turkey. None harmed the Jews. The Jewish Hell is in Europe.