Comments on: Iraqi Kurdistan: The End of Turkey’s EU Dreams?

By: Is Turkish Invasion of Northern Iraq Imminent? at Forward Deployed

Is Turkish Invasion of Northern Iraq Imminent? at Forward Deployed — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 09:25:05 +0000

[...] situation in Turkey.Â My experience dealing with Turkish Kurds nearly matches the same experiences Coming Anarchy’s Chirol had while traveling around eastern Turkey this past [...]

By: oddball

oddball — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:41:25 +0000

I remember not so long ago, the US mission was to remove WMD from Iraq. Then, it was to depose Saddam and bring democracy to Iraq. No, no, no! It was really free the Kurds and give them autonomy. NO! NO! NO! The mission is to setup a new nation, for the Kurds. As mission creep gets more and more out of control, so does the rhetoric. This is a good time to step back and look at history before we get ahead of ourselves. I would like to remind everybody, at the minimum, that the Treaty of Lausanne provides for a unified Iraq, among other things. And it appears that the new “mission” will destroy the Treaty, along with any Turkish commitment to it. A nullified treaty means that the Turks, by default, resume all land claims (rightfully) to any land that was once within Turkish territory. Not to mention of course, there’s now way in the world anybody in the neighborhood is going to let the Kurds breathe once the US leaves. Kurds’ star is shining at the moment, only because they’re US friendly. I see mission creep moving in the direction of getting 30 million Kurdish immigrants to the US.

By: Jimm

Jimm — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 10:40:33 +0000

Turkey’s hopes look pretty forlorn, it’s true.

But there was a time when no one would have believed Romania and Bulgaria would get in. And Bosnia-Herzegovina is a candidate!

There may be a time when Europe needs a large supply of cheap labour, an influx of young people to balance its greying population, an ideological totem in the form of a Muslim (not Islamic) democracy, more direct transit routes to Central Asia and an eastern military bulwark to a fiery Middle East.

Of course, everything might change and Europe may need nothing of the sort.

By: Debris

Debris — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 07:05:40 +0000

Yep, imagine the EU flag waving at SilopiÃ�Â´s border crossing…and IranÃ�Â´s, and SyriaÃ�Â´s…

Anybody thought Turkey would ever join the EU?

By: Jimm

Jimm — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 09:25:10 +0000

Turkey still has too much to lose by invading. And Turkey has taken the Iraq border build-up this far BECAUSE of dashed European hopes. The hope of EU membership has genuinely done a great deal of good to Turkey, certainly as regards the economy, political stability and the weakening of the army’s policy veto. Turkey still has a very long way to go before becoming a true liberal democracy, and it will take a great deal of time, but the benefits to the west of having (one day) a large, pluralistic, fairly permissive and economically successful liberal democracy between Iran, Iraq, Syria and Europe should far outweigh whatever xenophobic concerns regarding immigration and spending that the French and German electorates put forth. And it’s possible.

There may even be a way in which anti-Kurdish sentiment cements a sense (sorry) of unity among most of the population. It’s not healthy, I grant you.

Interesting and calm analysis from the Asia Times here about the “cultural divide” and “political earthquake” of late:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IF26Ak02.html

By: Dan tdaxp

Dan tdaxp — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 03:41:42 +0000

The horrible reality for Turish Europeanizers — all the way back to the Young Ottomans — is that to be a European country means that non-European possessions can be only colonies. But the East still calls Turkey in her dreams.

By: Blog Bound Up | Prose Before Hos

Blog Bound Up | Prose Before Hos — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 14:57:22 +0000

[...] old ship, Israel’s influence on American foreign policy, 10 Attributes of Really Lazy People, Iraqi Kurdistan The End of Turkey’s EU Dreams?, and finally, Wind Powered [...]