Sir,
Your coverage of the developing imbroglio between Turkey and Syria
("Generals spoiling for a fight with Kurds' 'protector' ",
October 10) fails to address a larger issue: that Syria is only
the latest target in an escalating campaign of Turkish military
adventurism.
Renewed threats of military strikes against
Cyprus, for its purchase of defensive anti-aircraft missiles,
recent territorial claims against populated Greek islands in the
Aegean Sea, the ethnic cleansing of more than 3,000 Kurdish villages
in Turkey's south-eastern region, an attempted coup of Azerbaijanâ's
government in 1995, and multiple invasions of northern Iraq in
pursuit of Kurdish rebels since the end of the Gulf War have all
set a dangerous precedent of transnational aggression by the Turkish
state, a precedent the US and Nato are as responsible for as the
generals who still rule Turkey.
For the sake of peace and stability
in perhaps the most explosive region in the world, as well as
for the sake of its own credibility, the US must restrain Turkey's
out-of-control generals as it did in Bosnia through the use of
diplomacy, sanctions, or the threat of military intervention if
necessary.
|