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The end of Turkey as an ally?
American Thinker ^ | September 14, 2014 | Thomas Lifson

Posted on 09/14/2014 9:32:26 AM PDT by jazusamo

Turkey has made a decision to not only refuse to join the “broad coalition” against ISIS that President Obama promised Wednesday night is more than just a major slap in face for Obama and America. It also presents an obstacle to the success of the president’s promised “degradation and destruction of the caliphate. As The Wall Street Journal notes:

Was it only a week ago that Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel listed a "core coalition" of 10 countries willing to join the U.S. effort to destroy the Islamic State? Since then Britain has categorically ruled out military strikes in Syria, while Germany has ruled out any use of force. Now Turkey is bugging out.

The Turkish abdication goes a step further than the Brits or Germans. Not only will Ankara take no military action, it will also forbid the U.S. from using the U.S. air base in Incirlik—located fewer than 100 miles from the Syrian border—to conduct air strikes against the terrorists. That will complicate the Pentagon's logistical and reconnaissance challenges, especially for a campaign that's supposed to take years.

Turkey is behaving more as an opponent than an ally:

…the reality [is] a Turkish government that is a member of NATO but long ago stopped acting like an ally of the U.S. or a friend of the West. Former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardone declared this week that the Turkish government "frankly worked" with the al-Nusrah Front—the al Qaeda affiliate in Syria—along with other terrorist groups...

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: erdogan; hillary; isis; obama; obamanewisisstrategy; terrorism; turkey
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To: arthurus

Also remember that Turkey fears an independent Kurdistan. ISIS had been busy slaughtering kurds amongst others. It wouldn’t make sense for them to work against ISIS when they are doing their dirty work for them.


21 posted on 09/14/2014 11:36:02 AM PDT by Fellow Traveler
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To: entropy12
If Assad is toppled, ISIS has a corridor to the Med. Say goodbye to Lebanon. If Turkey ends up radical Muslim, they have access to eastern Europe through Ukraine. Only a Ukraine backed by Russia could stop that incursion.

If Obama and the DC crowd were serious about stopping ISIS, they'd be supporting Assad and letting Russia defend the that eastern tier of Ukraine. Obama is doing everything wrong, and nobody in DC has the integrity to stop him. They're too involved in two games...(1)power and wealth to their globalist sponsors and (2) having a really good campaign issue.

Beyond disgusted

22 posted on 09/14/2014 11:43:27 AM PDT by grania
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To: Paulie

Turkey may well become an ally of the IS—They have not been a friend of the US for quite some time.


23 posted on 09/14/2014 11:52:03 AM PDT by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll Onward! Ride to the sound of the guns!)
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To: ROCKLOBSTER

Correct! That was the beginning of the errors committed by the U.S.

The only president that did the right thing after that was Reagan, who bombed Gaddafi’s compound and left it at that.

The only solution now is the complete annihilation of the members of the peaceful religion (or saving some by conversion, which is unlikely).


24 posted on 09/14/2014 11:54:33 AM PDT by bobo1 (progressives=commies/fascists)
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To: bobo1
The only solution now is the complete annihilation of the members of the peaceful religion.

We have the technology.

25 posted on 09/14/2014 11:56:33 AM PDT by ROCKLOBSTER (Celebrate "Republicans Freed the Slaves" Month.)
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To: ROCKLOBSTER

I would all be for using it.


26 posted on 09/14/2014 12:28:50 PM PDT by bobo1 (progressives=commies/fascists)
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To: jazusamo
We won't get any help from Arab countries... maybe some money. Money's cheap over there... They'll pay us to die for them....

Gotta be careful - - every thug in the world knows Obama’s going to be in office only another two years. The world's monsters are chomping at the bit to make moves... If we're stretched too thin it won't just be Taiwan and Europe that go down - it could be us too....

27 posted on 09/14/2014 12:39:22 PM PDT by GOPJ ("If America was a house, the Left would root for the termites." - Greg Gutfeld)
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To: jazusamo

Can’t believe anyone ever proposed letting the Turks into the EU, let alone Germany and other countries importing thousands of them as residents. (Scratch that last espostulation; we’ve been importing thousands of mohammedans since Bush II and before.)


28 posted on 09/14/2014 12:44:30 PM PDT by SharpRightTurn (White, black, and red all over--America's affirmative action, metrosexual president.)
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To: jazusamo

We don’t know what we don’t know and should avoid believing the propaganda Obama distributes via his MSM minions.

The opinion in this piece is mostly based on not really knowing as well.


29 posted on 09/14/2014 12:47:05 PM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12 ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
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To: dfwgator
Western Turkey is kind of secular and Europeanized. But these people are becoming the minority due to the more fundamentalist Kurdish Turks in Eastern Turkey. Mark Styne laid out how Turkish demographics are putting the religiously conservative Kurds and fundamentalists in power
30 posted on 09/14/2014 12:51:46 PM PDT by dennisw (The first principle is to find out who you are then you can achieve anything -- Buddhist monk)
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To: dfwgator

What about it?


31 posted on 09/14/2014 1:06:43 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("What in the wide, wide world of sports is goin' on here?")
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To: dennisw

Makes you wonder if Turkey will split up in the future.


32 posted on 09/14/2014 1:17:39 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: entropy12

The Islamic Brotherhood has been outlawed in Egypt.

Make your points, fine, make up stuff, not so fine.


33 posted on 09/14/2014 1:23:17 PM PDT by Radix ("..Democrats are holding a meeting today to decide whether to overturn the results of the election.")
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To: dfwgator
What about when Turkey didn’t allow NATO jets to fly over their airspace during the war on Iraq?

Even worse, the 4thID was supposed to invade Iraq from the north via Turkey. I think they were about a month late getting into battle as a result.

34 posted on 09/14/2014 1:23:48 PM PDT by Straight Vermonter (Posting from deep behind the Maple Curtain)
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To: grania
If Turkey ends up radical Muslim, they have access to eastern Europe through Ukraine.

You probably should consult a map.

35 posted on 09/14/2014 1:25:59 PM PDT by Straight Vermonter (Posting from deep behind the Maple Curtain)
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To: dennisw
Western Turkey is kind of secular and Europeanized. But these people are becoming the minority due to the more fundamentalist Kurdish Turks in Eastern Turkey. Mark Styne laid out how Turkish demographics are putting the religiously conservative Kurds and fundamentalists in power

The Kurds most emphatically do not support Erdogan and his Islamists. In fact have carried out terror attacks against his campaign events. The Kurds vote for BDP which is a secular, socialist party.

The Kurds are strongest in the south east of the country (green). Erdogan's AKP party is the yellow/brown. The party of Ataturk (CHP) is the red.


36 posted on 09/14/2014 1:39:24 PM PDT by Straight Vermonter (Posting from deep behind the Maple Curtain)
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To: Straight Vermonter

Just checked the map. Turkey has the southern coast of the Black Sea, with easy access into Greece. Russia’s a strong buffer on the north. Ukraine can’t be depended on. To keep access to Europe from Turkey through the Black Sea, you need Russia. Who stops an ISIS with access to both the Med and the Black Sea?


37 posted on 09/14/2014 1:41:18 PM PDT by grania
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To: grania
Turkey already is in Europe. They share a border with Greece and Bulgaria. The Black Sea doesn't really come into play. That said, the point about Russia is correct. They regard the Balkan Slavs as little brothers that they will protect. See World War I.

If Turkey is allowed to become a member of the EU, however, then Europe is likely lost anyway.

38 posted on 09/14/2014 1:45:32 PM PDT by Straight Vermonter (Posting from deep behind the Maple Curtain)
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To: Straight Vermonter

As the think-tankers like to say: “Who lost Turkey?” In a nutshell: Kemal Ataturk. Since he founded post-Ottoman Turkey in his own image nearly nine decades ago, the population has increased from 14 million to over 70 million. But that five-fold increase is not evenly distributed. The short version of Turkish demographics in the 20th century is that Rumelian Turkey — i.e., western, European, secular, Kemalist Turkey — has been outbred by Anatolian Turkey — i.e., eastern, rural, traditionalist, Islamic Turkey. Ataturk and most of his supporters were from Rumelia, and they imposed the modern Turkish republic on a reluctant Anatolia, where Ataturk’s distinction between the state and Islam was never accepted. Now they don’t have to accept it. The swelling population has spilled out of its rural hinterland and into the once solidly Kemalist cities.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/229901/israel-turkey-and-end-stability/mark-steyn


39 posted on 09/14/2014 1:47:58 PM PDT by dennisw (The first principle is to find out who you are then you can achieve anything -- Buddhist monk)
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To: dennisw

Good post.


40 posted on 09/14/2014 1:49:34 PM PDT by Straight Vermonter (Posting from deep behind the Maple Curtain)
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