Russia Finds – Shaming The U.S. Government Into Action Can Work Russia has now managed twice to shame the U.S. into action against Jihadis by publicly demonstrating that the U.S. is not really committed to its promises. During 2014 and 2015 the U.S. did very little to attack the Islamic State. U.S. strikes hit irrelevant targets likean “ISIS excavator” or some …
Graham E. Fuller -Turkey’s Perilous Crossroad
What does Turkey need to do to overcome its present foreign policy fiasco, one of the worst in modern Turkish history? The irony of all this is that those directly responsible for this mess — the team of Recep Tayyip Erdogan (now president) and Ahmet Davutoglu, (former foreign minister and now prime minister) — is exactly the team that one …
Vijay Prashad – Turkey’s war on the Kurds
“Much of the explanation for the assault on the Kurds is to be found in Turkey’s failed policy in Syria.” Picture shows Kurds clashing with the Turkish police as they protest against the curfew imposed in Kurdish towns, in Diyarbakir. A war of words has broken out between the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the leader of the left-wing …
Blaise Misztal – The U.S. picked the wrong ally in the fight against Islamic State
When Turkey finally agreed to join U.S.-led efforts to fight Islamic State, Ankara was supposed to make the battle against the extremist group more effective. Yet within days, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, bombed not just Islamic State forces but also, with even greater fervor, the one group showing some success in keeping them at bay: the Kurds. The United …
John Feffer – The Kurdish Elephant
Let’s mix some metaphors in the Middle East, all of them involving elephants. In the crisis zone that encompasses Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria, the Kurds are the elephant in the room. They are the “problem” that no one really wants to talk about. Because it would be stitched together from bits and pieces of their territory, the countries of …
Juan Cole – Turkey’s New “War on Terror” Mainly Targeting Kurds
What was at first announced as a new Turkish turn toward attacks on Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) on Friday has quickly become largely a campaign against Kurds instead. It is being alleged that the Turkish Air Force launched dozens of strikes against bases of the Kurdistan Workers Party over the border in Iraq on Saturday, and just 4 against Daesh positions …