A Turkish soldier on patrol near Iraq. Yahoo/AFP.
Turkish soldiers have entered Iraq to fight members of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK). AFP. The Turks attacked in response to a terrorist bombing that has killed 13 police officer. The attack comes a day after a double bombing that killed 16 Turkish soldiers. In response Turkey launched air attacks in Iraq. In addition, 150 troops crossed the border in a rare raid. The target was two dozen PKK militants who escaped over the border after the bombings. In response to the raid the United States called for both Turkey and the PKK to return to the negotiation table. Violence in Turkey has become more and more common after the Turkish government cracked down on Kurdish groups in July. In Istanbul, a mob attacked a pro-Kurd newspaper for the second time in as many days.
My Comment:
Sounds like Turkey is spiraling out of control. Ever since the crackdown in July, the number of terror attacks, riots and violence has increased dramatically. Clearly Turkey has used the war against ISIS as an excuse to restart the war against the Kurds. The Kurds have obliged and the PKK have responded in kind. This is a situation that will get worse before it gets better. The cycle of revenge has started up again and a whole lot more blood will spill before this stops. The only hope is for some kind of peace settlement, and I don't think either side is up for it.
I don't have a lot of sympathy for either side. My opinion of the Turkish government couldn't get much lower. They haven't done much at all to help with ISIS and even now that they have officially joined the war, they still do little to nothing to help. They also hate the Kurds for little more then ethnic bigotry. Turkey is well known as a country that does not allow ethnic identity to exist. You are either a Turk or nothing. Don't believe me? Ask the Armenians and the Greeks....
It's not like the Kurds are much better though. PKK and other Kurdish separatists like to make a lot of noise about how they are just fighting for a homeland but I don't believe that for a second. In all actuality, the PKK is a group of far left communist radicals that want a revolution, not based on their ethnicity, but based on class warfare. I have no sympathy for anyone that supports communism and too many of the Kurds do.
It seems that the entire middle east is burning right now. Formerly stable countries, like Turkey, have fresh insurgencies. ISIS is ravaging through practically every state and a major war is happening in Yemen. It's hard to think how things could be worse but with the way things are going it seems like it will.
All this instability gives ISIS an opportunity to expand. To date ISIS has avoided attacking Turkey, largely because they needed it to be an open state that they could move recruits, money and weapons through. That hasn't changed too much even though Turkey has joined the war against ISIS. Turkey is just too focused on destroying the PKK to even bother with ISIS. With focus on the wrong enemy, ISIS may be able to expand to Turkey.
Again, I have to point out that there isn't much of a difference between the PKK and the YPG who are fighting ISIS in Syria. To their credit, they are about the only force doing anything to combat ISIS. A few Americans have joined the YPG to fight ISIS in Syria. I've said before that this is not a wise course of action. The PKK and YPG are pretty much the same thing and the people fighting ISIS in Syria with the YPG are basically supporting the same people that are attacking the Turks, which are US allies.
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