Posted on 10/15/2004 12:45:49 PM PDT by Doctor13
ANKARA - Russian forces have killed more than 20 Turks fighting alongside Chechen rebels, the Russian Federation's defense minister was quoted as saying.
At a NATO ministers meeting in Romania, Minister Sergei Ivanov told attending counterparts that about 200 foreign mercenaries were currently fighting alongside rebels in Chechnya, the Interfax news agency reported.
He said 24 Turks had been killed while fighting Russian forces and sent veiled criticism to Ankara by saying, "Incidentally, this country is a NATO member and is included in the anti-terrorist coalition, together with Russia."
Ivanov was seeking anti-terror cooperation in Romania after a school siege by mostly Chechen militants in the Beslan province in early September resulted in death of more than 300 hostages at the school.
Only 24? Dang!
This is actually a bit shocking...
Please remember that in World War I, the Turks fought on the side of the Germans. In World War II, they were sympathetic to the Nazis.
At the beginning of the war in Iraq, the Turks refused to let our troops go through Turkey from the North in order to get to the Suni Triangle. If we had secured the Sun Triangle, chances are that we would not be having the terrible fighting and loss of life of a lot of people, both troops and civilians, that we are witnessing today, and still the West calls the Turks "Our great ally!"
As of this date, not only have the Turks not apologized for the genocide of Armenians, Greek Pontics and Assyrians, they refuse to even acknowledge that they committed the genocide against the Christian population in Asia Minor.
With allies like that, who needs enemies?
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