Turkey vs. Syria: What About The Kurds?

מוצאי יום שמיני עצרת תשע"ג

YNET: Syrian Soldiers Killed in Turkish Strike 

Turkey continues to bombard Syrian posts following mortar attack that killed five Turks; Turkish parliament set to discuss further military action

Turkish artillery hit targets inside Syria on Wednesday, killing several Syrian soldiers according to activists, after a mortar bomb fired from Syria killed five Turkish civilians and prompted NATO to call for an immediate end to Syria's "aggressive acts."

In the most serious cross-border escalation of the 18-month uprising in Syria, Turkey hit back at what it called "the last straw" when a mortar hit a residential neighborhood of the southern border town of Akcakale. (cont.)

I'm going to hazard a guess that this back and forth has something to do with the Kurds.

The Turks, who wiped out countless Armenians, and still deny, and repeatedly said they would "mix in,' even in Iraq, if they sensed any threat of Kurdish nationalism.

The last thing they want is a Kurdish state, or even anything even remotely more autonomous than what the Kurds currently have in Northern Iraq.  The Turks are afraid of their own Kurdish population "getting out of hand."

Why I am suspicious that this back and forth between Turkey and Syria has something to do with the Kurds?  Unless I missed them, Kurds have been conspicuously absent from any of the mainstream news reports.  (Did I miss them?)  And yet, too perfect of an excuse to go after some Kurds, under the guise of defending against the highly unstable situation in Syria.

This is not the first skirmish along this border.  And, I suspect that it will not be the last.

There is constant debate, in Israel at least, as to which country will be the next to fall to Islamic extremism.  Algeria?  Turkey?  Even Jordan?  Perhaps the fall of Egypt is already in progress....

My guess is that we will not see any significant move in this direction, until it gains full membership in the European Union.

"At the siege of Vienna in 1683 Islam seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe.  We are in a new phase of a very old war." - Gates Of Vienna Blog

To break through the gates of Vienna this time, they are using very different methods.

In the meantime, let's keep an eye on what happens with the Kurds, one of the only peoples left on this earth without some kind of control over their homeland.

The pride of the Turkish government may overpower them yet, ruining their chances of accelerated infiltration into Europe through membership in the European Union.