Sunday, October 12, 2014

Explaining Artie Erdogan, a Faux-Ally (and a Foe, Really)

ISIS is on the verge of taking the Kurdish town of Kobani on Syria-Turkey border, and potentially unleashing an epic blood-bath there. Meanwhile, Turkish tanks sit and watch from their side, and, if given the command, could do much to prevent the ISIS takeover. And yet they sit idle, with little indication that they will ever receive the order to move. Turkey has, however, agreed to train some of those chimerical moderate Syrian "rebels." By then, of course, Kobani's Kurds will be toast--literally, alas.

Since the White House is said to find Erdogan's inactivity "bewildering," allow me to try to explain it to 'em: Erdogan is a shifty Islamist who is out for his own self-aggrandizement. He also hates--hates!--the Kurds, who would carve their Kurdistan out of Turkey's flank. Expecting Erdogan to do something to save the Kurds is a lot like asking the Turks, back in the early part of the last century, to "save" the Armenians. In this case, however, the Turks have lucked out in that someone else--ISIS--is doing their dirty work for them.

Conclusion: we depend on Artie at our peril--and as a function of our own cluelessness about who he is and what he's up to.

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