Turkey’s prime minister accused Russia on Wednesday of attempted “ethnic cleansing” in northern Syria, saying Moscow was trying to drive out the local Turkmen and Sunni Muslim populations to protect its military interests in the region.
Ahmet Davutoglu’s comments could further harm strained relations between Moscow and Ankara, already at their worst in recent memory after Turkish forces downed a Russian warplane near the Turkish-Syrian border late last month.
“Russia is trying to make ethnic cleansing in northern Latakia to force (out) all Turkmen and Sunni population who do not have good relations with the regime,” Davutoglu told foreign reporters in Istanbul.
“They want to expel them, they want to ethnically cleanse this area so that the regime (of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad) and Russian bases in Latakia and Tartus are protected,” he said, speaking English.
9 comments:
Mound, it looks we live in a crazy world.
Oh, c'mon, LD. You've known that all along.
I'm losing my soft spot for Turkey. When I was there (not too many years ago) it was a really nice place, well developed, organized, reasonably clean, safe and tolerant. Since then, it looks like Erdogan and his buddies are taking Turkey down the Middle Eastern Muslim tribal road. It's sad to watch.
Turkey with its mistreatment of Kurds bordering on genocide have no moral authority to converse about human rights.
A..non
@ Toby - I'm having trouble seeing how Turkey's actions under Erdogan can be reconciled with the interests and the obligations of Turkey's NATO partners. If, as Gwynne Dyer suggested in November, Erdogan has paved the way for a Turkish civil war, can NATO be dragged in under Article 5 on a claim that the Kurds are both a national and a transnational actor?
@ A..non. Erdogan seems to see himself as a reincarnation of the Ottomans. Somebody needs to deal with that corrupt bastard, and soon. That said, I've read recent reports that Russian jets are indiscriminately bombing Turkmen neighbourhoods. The thing is there are so many conflicting accounts it's hard to know what to believe or how much.
@Mound of Sound
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2015/12/turkeys-imperial-motives-in-attacking-syria-and-iraq.html#comments
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2015/12/erdogan-moves-to-annexes-mosul.html#comments
As for the Turkmen:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Turkmen_Brigades
Were there any issues with the Nov.1/15 elections in Turkey? Something smells here.
@UU4077, I agree, those last elections are suspect.
@Mound, I'm also "having trouble seeing how Turkey's actions under Erdogan can be reconciled with the interests and the obligations of Turkey's NATO partners."
The Turk versus Kurd feud goes back a couple of centuries. Erdogan didn't start it; he's just making it worse.
Mound, yes I know that we live in a crazy world.
I have learned a lot from Lorne's and your blog. I was hoping that you will do a post on demented Donald Trump. It is a big story in the U.S and I think internationally.
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