“Can’t we just wait until a better time? A time when there is no impact on our armed forces engaged in combat?”
That’s a really good question. And I don’t know the answer. However, is there ever a wrong time to call a thing by it's right name? I am sure the Turks regret that part of their history. Who wouldn't? But what happened then is just what comtempoary Muslim extremists would like for their 'enemies' now... That's the thing I can't get past Have the Turks sufficiently distanced themselves from THAT kind of thinking? Last I heard they denied it altogether when it became an impediment to their entry into the EU. How hard do you have to scratch your average garden variety Muslim to find a radical extremist? So I don't know... what do you think?
There seems to be three main categories of people -- according to Internet sources: ordinary everyday Turks who are Western-oriented, then there's the Kemalists and the Islamists. My time in Turkey was almost entirely in Ankara with a little time in Istanbul. So I do not know anything about rural areas where, I suppose, the Islamists are likely to dominate.
I suppose I could say that I met a Kemalist at Ataturk's Museum. They worship that guy and almost all Turks revere him, as well they should.
I sincerely believe that Ataturk put Turkey's Islam through a reformation, created a Western-style republic, and it's the Army's responsibility to protect the republic from Islamists. They've done that five times, I believe, including in the mid-to-late 1990s.
The military purges Islamists and Islamist sympathizers from the ranks. I am pretty sure that they still do that. In fact, one of the warnings that the military directed at the (Islamist?) AKP recently was to stop appointing the purged military personnel to government jobs.
If you read the linked article in my first reply I think you'll agree that the resolution could be superfluous -- the goal is recovery of territory and other compensation. Armenia claims much of eastern Turkey -- so do the Kurds.. interesting. :)
RE: "dress rehearsal for the holocaust"
Germany personnel assigned to Turkey did hold key positions in Hitler's National Socialist government.
RE: :comtempoary Muslim extremists"
I don't believe that there is one Islam, in the manner that there is one Catholic Church and one Pope. There are of course radical Muslims in Turkey and the public knows it. Just a couple of months ago literally hundreds of thousand took to the streets to make clear to the AKP that they will protect their constitutional democratic republic from Islamists. The Army has made it clear that they will see to it.
RE: "How hard do you have to scratch your average garden variety Muslim to find a radical extremist?"
Let me ask, how hard would you have to scratch the average Joe and Jane here to find a Christian Identity connection?
Let me add, Muslims here in the States? I don't trust 'em. Turkey, even the "Islamist" AKP government is helping us, what are 99% of the Muslims here doing to help us?