Turkey's intentions are aggressive, not defensive

Submitted by Michael S. (United States), Aug 19, 2014 at 16:35

Turkey is a major world power, ranked right up with the UK, France and Germany:

http://www.globalfirepower.com/

In terms of its standing army, it is second in NATO only to the US. In light of this, I am not concerned about lTurkey's ability to withstand ISIS on its own. If Turkey does find itself fighting ISIS, which it has been the main helper of in the past, it will more likely than not be part of a Turkish desire to occupy N. Syria and N. Iraq, reviving the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey did this once before, in Cyprus in 1974 -- where it occupied the northern half of the island without a whimper of opposition from its NATO allies, and ethnically cleansed it of its Greek-speaking majority. I expect a similar NATO response, should Turkey move against ISIS.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".