I haven't posted about the Turkish-Kurdish escalation because I'm waiting to see how it will play out (I suspect badly), but I hope that this map will help explain some of the tensions. When the Ottoman empire was carved up, creating the current map of the Middle East, the Kurds got screwed. Now, Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Iraq all have Kurdish minorities who do not identify themselves with their national governments.
And they have oil.
2 comments:
Umm. Er. OY! Tis all the fault of perhaps us Europeans- Some of us across a pond. Twas Britons and such that "carved out" much of the world without much nod or respect for long (i said long) lasting socio/cultural lines.Thusly,in my opinion, would things improve if all of us drew political lines across the world based on cultures, religion, etc. as opposed to economic versimilitudes? For example- what makes Iraq culturally cohesive?sovereign?
Simply hogwash. Nanners! to be sure... Inexhaustible chickpea resources in this region!
This could be a development that forces America to vamoose, so as not to get involved in a conflict between two ostensible allies.
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