The Real Cost of Turkey's Kurdish Obsession

by Amir Taheri  •  October 20, 2019 at 4:00 am

        

• The end of First World War left the Kurds in an even worse situation than before. President Woodrow Wilson's promise of "self-determination" was soon forgotten, leaving behind the dream of independence on the Kurdish side and the fear of Kurdish secession in the Ottoman camp as reconstituted as the Turkish Republic under Mustafa Kemal pasha (Ataturk).
• In much of history, at least until recently, systems sustained by ultra-nationalist and/or nativist ideologies have always seen "otherness" as a threat rather than an opportunity of cultural and social enrichment.
• In other words, one can commit genocide as long as one makes a speech in favor of Palestine and attends a Shi'ite chest-beating ceremony.

The best outcome that Turkey might expect from the war it has started against the Kurds, is to be extricated from that hornet's nest with a minimum of damage. Pictured: Turkish soldiers prepare their tanks before starting to move towards the Syrian border, on October 18, 2019 in Ceylanpinar, Turkey. (Photo by Burak Kara/Getty Images)

A classical dictum cited by Clausewitz, the father of war studies as an academic discipline, tells us that starting a war is often easy while ending it is always difficult. Does that dictum apply to the war that Turkey has started against the Kurds by invading Syria? Right now, the answer is that no one knows. What is certain, however, is that the best outcome that Turkey might expect, is to be extricated from that hornet's nest with a minimum of damage.

While the war could be blamed on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's autocratic style of decision-making, the deeper roots of the conflict must be sought in Turkey's centuries-old Kurdish obsession.

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