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Old 11-18-2015, 11:49 AM   #1405
Itse
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Originally Posted by CroFlames View Post
I remember reading somewhere that Turkey is a huge importer of illegal Isis Oil.
That's well known yes. They also sell weapons to the ISIS and conduct joint military operations with them against the rebels.

As for Turkey bombing terrorists, well that's highly debatable. The PKK is really your prototypical example of "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter". There has for a long time been notable pressure in the West and even in Turkey to remove the PKK from the list of terrorist organizations to help build relationships and peace.

While the PKK clearly has its history of violence, for the most part the Kurd-Arab relations in Turkey have been rather peaceful in recent times. (Relatively.) The PKK has actually given up on the idea of an independent Kurdistan for now.

As some might remember Turkey has its own internal problems. The authoritarian president Erdugan has according to many been turning the country continuously less democratic and clamping down on the political opposition with police and military violence.

The Kurds in Turkey are a part of the liberal/left opposition to Erdugan. (The left has a notable number of Kurdish MP:s for example.) The Kurds across the border are also supporting the Turkish left wing opposition financially.

This is why Turkeys president Erdugan is bombing Kurdish forces in Syria. He is hitting who sees as his political enemy. He has also probably deliberately shelled Kurdish civilian villages, although it seems this ended as quickly as it started probably because of international attention.

So, Erdugan is bombing the Kurds in Syria because they support his democratic opposition in Turkey. He probably would love to re-ignite racial tensions in Turkey and get PKK more active, as he could then use those issues to further attack his local opposition.

The obvious problem here of course is that if the ethical tensions in Turkey do rise again, this could also tear apart the SDF and essentially save ISIS. (Which already highly dependant on Turkey in many ways, as pointed out in the Guardian article below.

Last edited by Itse; 11-18-2015 at 12:53 PM.
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