Turkey Says It ‘Will Not Tolerate’ a Kurdish Sanctuary in Syria
Turkey sent tanks and missile batteries to the border next to Syria's Kurdish region
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he will not tolerate a Kurdish safe-haven in Syria following reports that Kurdish rebels and a Syrian Kurdish political party had taken control of large swathes of territory along the Turkish-Syrian border.
Erdogan emphasized Turkey’s concern that a Kurdish authority in the north of Syria could provide a sanctuary to Turkey’s own Kurdish separatists for them to possibly launch attacks into Turkey.
“We will not allow a terrorist group to establish camps in northern Syria and threaten Turkey,” he said on Thursday. “If there is a step which needs to be taken against the terrorist group, we will definitely take this step.”
Late on Thursday Turkey mobilized and deployed tanks and missile batteries on the Syrian border near the Kurdish region, prompting concern Syria’s internal conflict could spill outside its own borders. Turkey is a NATO member state, so if it decides to engage it could have serious consequences.
But Erdogan’s government has been allowing Syrian rebels to establish bases in Turkey, from which they launch attacks into Syria. Apparently, the Turkish motto is ‘do as we say, not as we do.’
When Syria began to descend into extreme violence, Turkey gave shelter to the Syrian rebel fighters and eventually provided them with lethal and non-lethal aid, despite their having ties to terrorist groups and having committed serious crimes themselves. That Turkey would complain about Syria committing to the mirror image of its own policies is embarrassing.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey for decades, has been condemned as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States. During the 1990s, Washington supported Turkey major atrocities in the southeast Kurdish region, leaving the countryside devastated with tens of thousands killed and millions displaced.
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mojo
July 26th, 2012 at 8:55 pm
This Turkish government will not tolerate itself because they want any political counter attack not their political standing toward people of Syria, they will only tolerate NATO and that Rasmussen fascist from Denmark proposal telling Turkish government what to tolerate or not to tolerate. Turkish government is a peasant of Saudis and NATO, they are the servant of English and Germans and Swedish and other european government doing anything they are told to do but democracy at home. They will do anything and will take any stupid steps to please their masters, just to become the member of European Union, while others trying to find a way to get out of the a non existing social union but a money market serving the rich and militarized complex (NATO) as a union.
Macroman
July 27th, 2012 at 4:31 am
Last sentence, need an apostrophe-s on "Turkey."
John
July 27th, 2012 at 5:21 am
One thing for sure, the Turks have killed lots of people over the years……
jk
Joseph Zrnchik
July 27th, 2012 at 9:15 am
If Erdogan does not want Kurd bases in Syria, then he needs to dismantle the al Qaeda bases in Turkey.
Jaime
July 27th, 2012 at 1:13 pm
What the fuck does Erdogan have to say about what Syria does within its borders?
Andyj
July 27th, 2012 at 10:05 pm
Now the Turkish army and the politicians will have to mind their backs for getting their throats slit in the night. The readiness to attack and supply more instruments of death across the border could be taken from either side of the border and used against the Turks.
Even if Syria falls, the Kurds will be further emboldened to regain their lands back from turkey and Northern Iraq. Let’s see how the lying media will report Turkey “mass murdering their people”.
Kurdistan was historically split up and their boundaries scrubbed off the map for a very good reason. They were berserkers in warfare. No one country was safe.
United between Iran and Syria they will also gain backing from powerful neutral nations like, (ironically) China and Russia.
This could play out most interestingly. I only wish peace will prevail. War is a “for profit venture” where the public pays with taxes and blood while the profits end up with the few.