Boys stand around a fire in Sur district where clashes have taken place between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants, in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, December 24, 2015. REUTERS/SERTAC KAYAR
Robert Worth, New York Times: Behind the Barricades of Turkey’s Hidden War
A simmering conflict with the Kurds threatens to consume an American ally and inflame an already-unstable region.
On the morning of Oct. 29, 2014, a long convoy of armored vehicles and trucks rolled northward in the shadow of Iraq’s Zagros Mountains and crossed a bridge over the Khabur River, which marks the border with Turkey. As the convoy rumbled past the border gate, the road for miles ahead was lined with thousands of ecstatic Kurds, who clapped, cheered and waved the Kurdish flag. Many had tears in their eyes. Some even kissed the tanks and trucks as they passed. The soldiers, Iraqi Kurds, were on their way through Turkey to help defend Kobani, a Syrian border city, against ISIS. Their route that day traced an arc from northern Iraq through southeastern Turkey and onward into northern Syria: the historical heartland of the Kurdish people. For the bystanders who cheered them on under a hazy autumn sky, the date was deliciously symbolic. It was Turkey’s Republic Day. What had long been a grim annual reminder of Turkish rule over the Kurds was transformed into rapture, as they watched Kurdish soldiers parade through three countries where they have long dreamed of founding their own republic.
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WNU Editor: A must read for those who are following this conflict.
2 comments:
Groups of people here and there idling. Man in brown outfit with phone, very out of place. Trash every where.
Viva Turkey
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