Turkey Continues to Battle PKK
Turkish forces continued to fight against PKK militants yesterday The fighting killed five terrorists and five Turkish soldiers in the southeastern part of the country.
Another Turkish soldier died, and 15 were wounded, when the helicopter carrying them crashed. The Turkish army said that the heli crashed due to a technical error. The PKK, however, say they shot it down.
Fighting broke out, the military said, after PKK militants started firing at Turkish soldiers.
The war against the PKK has cost more than 40,000 lives. The PKK started its terrorism back in 1984. It says that its goal is to create an independent nation-state for Kurds. This nation-state would have to exist in parts of Turkey and Iraq.
Turkey obviously opposes these aims, and has fought against the PKK for 24 years. As it is, however, the PKK does not seem to be any weaker than they were several years ago. A major reason for this is the unwillingness of Iraq’s government to help the Turks fight the PKK. Members of the terrorist organization – recognized as such by Turkey, the United States and the European Union – commit terrorist attacks in Turkey, after which they run to northern Iraq, where they go into hiding until the next attack.
Meanwhile, the U.S. and EU have done little to nothing to help Turkey fight the PKK. One wonders whether these two will change their approach to the problem if the PKK would start killing Westerners as well. Something tells me that they would suddenly help Turkey then in every way they can.
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Meanwhile, the U.S. and EU have done little to nothing to help Turkey fight the PKK. One wonders whether these two will change their approach to the problem if the PKK would start killing Westerners as well. Something tells me that they would suddenly help Turkey then in every way they can.
The PKK was formed as ASALA, the terrorists which were killing Turks with nary a raised eyebrow from EU countries and the US from 1973 until the early 1990s, was disbanded.
One of the primary reasons ASALA was disbanded was due to the bombing at Orly which killed and wounded a sizable number of Europeans. ASALAs handlers then formed the PKK in the same neighborhoods of Lebanon in which ASALA took shelter because European nations that implicitly supported ASALA no longer would after the Orly massacre.
The PKK’s handlers have taken great care to ensure the PKK does not repeat the mistake ASALA made in killing non-Turks. Thus, EU and the US have their “insurance” policies in place and the PKK has been raised to not bite the hands that either implicitly or directly feed it.