Posted on 06/18/2017 12:07:31 PM PDT by Texas Fossil
Another FReeper told me they have important access to a certain sea or water passing.
That it would be hard for the USSR to take control of it if Turkey were in NATO.
Plus I think they ought in the Korean War and showed some decent fighting skills.
I could be wrong about ALL of this :)
I think that the “border” they refer to may be a self-declared border, for a breakaway area in SE Turkey.
The “sea or water passing” you are referring to is the passage from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean (i.e., the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles strait). The Turks have forts on both sides of this passageway and thus can control the passage of ships from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. This is the only warm water way the Russians can send ships to the Mediterranean.
Historically, the Russians have always wanted to wrest control of Constantinople/Istanbul away from the Turks, in order to control their access to the Mediterranean.
Yes, I’m sure that is exactly what Erdogan is doing.
But day by day ISIS is being defeated. I’m sure that makes him very unhappy. And when SA turned against Qatar he probably had a cat.
“If we permit the reconstitution of the Ottoman Empire”
Yes, and Obama and Hillary told him that he could and we would help him. That brought about the Great Evil called ISIS.
The modern military officers (more secular) are the ones that were removed. There are still Kemalists in the Military, but they have been quiet since the coup.
The Kemalist don’t like Erdogan nor the Islamists, but it does not look like they will react to Erdogan and his Islamist friends.
Evidently much of the Turkish electorate agree with Erdogan or are too afraid to speak against him.
Now what do you do with 2-300,000 people who oppose Erdogan and have lost their jobs? And what do you do with millions of Turkish Kurds who have been terrorized by Erdogan?
Turkey’s military is not as functional, their education institutions have been stripped, their financial situation is a disaster, tourism is ended. All these things have consequences.
the “border”?
I tried to identify the 3 towns on the map, was not successful. Will try again tonight. It does make a difference if it is in Iraq or in Turkey.
If it is in Turkey it is an internal dispute. If external, it is much more serious matter. Even if it is in Barzani’s Iraq.
I am not sure about the border, after relooking it. It well may be the Turk/Iraqi border. Probably is - they announced their intent to cross into Iraq (Kurdistan Region) to conduct an operation against the PKK some weeks ago. KRG was going to permit it.
I spent a little time researching the towns. There was interesting backgrounds on the first 2 of the towns.
First one was a very old Alevi (mountain Kurd) community before the Alevi genocide. (remnants evidently survived) Found a website that showed some of the most beautiful mountain surroundings I have ever seen. Amazing photos. I could see why they loved the area.
Second was a Chaldeon community at some point.
The Third I have not yet identified.
But I found this saying that at least some of the cities are in Iraqi territory.
“Turkish army clashes with PKK inside Iraqi Kurdistan, rebels say”
http://theiraqfile.com/turkish-army-clashes-with-pkk-inside-iraqi-kurdistan-rebels-say/
So I still have not solved the problem of which country the assault is actually in. It does make a difference to us, but to the the Turks under Erdogan there is no question that they simply don’t care where it is. They will kill Kurds.
My mistake.
Not a cat, that would be unIslamic. He probably had a camel.
That would be a lot harder to have. smile.
But you are probably right. smile.
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