By Eric Margolis
No one should be surprised by the dangerous crisis between Turkey and Iraq-based Kurdish separatists.
Critics long warned the U.S. invasion of Iraq would inevitably release the genii of Kurdish nationalism. Creation of a virtually independent, U.S.-backed Kurdish state in northern Iraq was certain to provoke Turkish fury.
A decade ago, I covered the low intensity war in Eastern Anatolia between Kurdish PKK guerillas and the Turkish army. At the time, the world ignored this ugly conflict in which 35,000 people had died. I came away torn by sympathy for both sides.
In recent weeks, Turkish-Kurdish tensions erupted. Marxist-nationalist PKK guerillas (Turks brand them terrorists) fighting for an independent nation for Turkey's 20 million or so Kurds killed 12 Turkish soldiers and captured eight.
Hundreds of Turkish soldiers have been killed in Turkish Anatolia by Kurdish fighters known as "pesh-merga."Keep reading . . .
1 comment:
Syria and Iran both want to see the conflict with the PKK rebels to be resolved. The internal conflict in the region maybe endless. Saddam killer many Kurds when he was in power. Conflict sometime might seem inevitable…..I recently came across a website about Estonia’s Singing Revolution – http://singingrevolution.com. Estonia was under Russian control as recently as 1991, and now that they are free, there is still tension between the Russians living in Estonia and the native Estonians
Post a Comment