This comes at a very bad time
This comes at a very bad time
Yes the Turks have been threatening to move in and occupy Kurdish territory. Why not. They like their oil. They already occupy a third of the Kurdish homeland. Why not let them go and massacre a whole lot of Kurds, because as Hitler once remarked before killing the Jews, "who remembers the Turkish genocide of the Armenians."
We get no help from the Turks in our war against Islamic Terrorists. The feelings in Turkey have become more anti American since the war. The only help we get is access for which we pay them. The Turks are Muslims first. We may as well condemn them. Their claim to secular society is false. Christians are still an inferior class in Turkey. If a Congressional statement provokes them to war, then they truly are not ready to join the civilized world.
Turkey has held itself in control about the cross border raids and infiltration from the PKK. This includes the shipment of drugs which is one of the PKK finance methods.
This did not start with the recent war in Iraq but got worse when we set the “No Fly Zone” in northern Iraq. IIRC we gave them assurances we would keep the PKK somewhat under control.
The PKK claims areas of Turkey as part of their Kurdish homeland.
Exactly, the timing screams 'bad politics'.