Posted on 10/14/2014 1:28:18 PM PDT by keat
SURUC Turkey (Reuters) - With medical supplies depleted in the war-ravaged north Syrian town of Kobani, Kurdish activist Blesa Omar rushed three comrades wounded in battle against Islamic State fighters straight to the border to dispatch them to a Turkish hospital.
He said he spent the next four hours watching them die, one by one, from what he thinks were treatable shrapnel wounds as Turkish border guards refused to let them through the frontier.
"To me it is clear they died because they waited so long. If they had received help, even up to one hour before their deaths, they could have lived," said Omar, 34, an ethnic Kurd originally from Iraq who holds Swedish nationality.
"Once the soldiers realized they were dead, they said, 'Now you can cross with the bodies.' I cannot forget that. It was total chaos, it was a catastrophe," he said, choking back tears.
A senior government spokesman denied claims wounded people were deliberately left to perish, saying it would violate Turkey's open-door policy that has given refuge to almost 200,000 refugees from Kobani since Islamic State fighters launched their offensive four weeks ago.
"Anyone who needs humanitarian aid is taken in, without any discrimination," said Cemalettin Hasimi, the director of public diplomacy at the office of the Turkish prime minister.
"For a country that has taken in close to 200,000 people, to then not accept a few people like this would be preposterous."
The deaths of wounded fighters held up at the border last week are another emotive charge in a litany of Kurdish grievances against Ankara, which Kurds accuse of turning its back on their kin fighting across the frontier.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
The Turks are not our friends either, any more than Pakistan.
Nor are they friends of Europe.
“Anyone who needs humanitarian aid is taken in, without any discrimination,” said Cemalettin Hasimi, the director of public diplomacy at the office of the Turkish prime minister.
Pfffft. Unless they are Kurds, in which case they can die or on their own or we will kill them.
This will be Rwanda, redux.
If the Kurds aren’t wiped out by ISIS, they should unify Kurdistan.
The only people fighting ISIS are the Kurds.
We need to help them. :(
They are MUSLIMS!
Hmmmm ..?? Is Obama trying to get rid of the Kurds - who appear to be standing in the way of ISIS taking control of all of Iraq and Syria ..???????????
This is a guess .. but I wouldn’t put it past this admin.
Turkey has no love for either the Kurds or ISIS. They would just as soon have them all kill each other.
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Bay of Pigs and Saigon all over again.
Obama AND Turkey want the Kurds gone
Some Turkish tanks would blow up, by accident, you see, if I were the Prez, but that’s just me.
The Turks need a good @ss-kicking. I haven’t forgotten what they to us in 2003 either.
Yeah me too arranged “little accident” if you know what I mean
The Turks are more than happy to let ISIS wipe out the Kurds. Let’s remember that when they cry for help as ISIS moves on into Turkey.
The EU was right to not admit Turkey. We should act just as responsibly and kick Turkey out of NATO. Turkey’s usefulness card has expired.
The Turks have no reservations whatsoever with ISIS “moving into” Turkey, as ISIS has designated Turkey to be the seat of the new caliphate.
Yeah, I guessed that.
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