Turkey's military

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), May 10, 2007 at 16:46

Dear Rick House, you wrote :

> While I agree with most of what you say in your comment, I don't think Turkey's military would expand its influence outside its recognized international borders.

Some also (naively) thought so ... until in 1974 the Turkish militarists invaded an independent state - Cyprus and occupied more than 1/3 of its territory . If they could do that , disrespecting any international agreements and borders , why should they suddenly care so much about the sanctity of the Kurdish border where their "national interests" are so much endangered ?

> To do so would mean that they would have to leave NATO , the nation's supreme secular tie to the West...

Why ? What Turkey would need is just another venal pro-Turkish secretary of state - a Henry Kissinger to solve the Kurdistan problem analogously to the Cyprus problem in 1974 - invasion , masscares, expulsion . Then after the Kurdish state in Northern Iraq is no more , some farce of international peace-keeping troops can be arranged as an act of Turkish good will . Except Greece no one will complain in NATO.

> Turkey's neutrality in the Iraq War is evidence of what I suggest. Turkey did not join the war effort in Iraq because of its religious ties to the Middle East.

Not only . First of all it protested this way angrily against an independent Kurdistan in Northern Iraq planned by the US.

> Turkey knows where it stands. It stands on the crossroad between East and West. That is where it will choose to remain if it can.

If you mean it is an Eastern tyranny in Western clothes , I agree with you completely . Anyway , even if it one days puts on Eastern clothes again , it will hardly change the nature of Turkey. It will just make it more visible.

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