Another Turkey background report

Between Ralph Peters, whose reports I think much of, and the more recent pundit and media reports which I am suspicious of, I offer another report. It is just another opinion based on some time on the ground in Incirlick, Balikesir, and Istanbul, albeit a long time ago.

The friction between the Turks and Kurds has been going on for generations. The friction is nothing new. Even the Turkish military draft of Kurds (as well as all citizens) always assigned the Kurds away from the common border area after training, a recognition of the historical friction, and good judgment many think. Even officers are pretty common sense about all this, and many would like to emigrate to the USA.

When the British and Russian diplomats divided up the Transcaucus and Mesopotamian world in their vision about 100 years ago, many wish they had created a Kurdistan and a Baluchistan. But they did not do so, and now the western diplomats in general support the status quo of the present nation-state boundaries, which are U.N. legal after all. Of course some of these major tribes and language groups still do not agree. Internationally, call it a realist versus idealist conflict in the west. Locally it is more like gaining an advantage, even if temporary on a path to some future. Just ask any western participant in Operation Provide Comfort who was on the ground in northern Iraq after the first Gulf War. The Kurds were just as disingenuous as the Iraqi Arabs. And I don’t mean politics, I mean shooting USA artillery.

To show my prejudice, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, would have been a perfect Secretary General of the U.N. and even world leader. But he died in 1938, and this idea is water over the dam.

As a last part of this Turkey background post for my fellow citizens, much is written about the dilemma we in the USA have about potential conflict between two allies, the Turks, and the Kurds. I’ve made my peace. It comes down to what is good for my family, and the USA. That’s what we have a State Department for. They are supposed to explain about us to them, not tell us how we are supposed to be, act, and vote.