Brendan O'Neill, The Telegraph: The West is betraying the Kurds and allowing them to be massacred
Stabs in the back don’t get much nastier than this.
For the past year, Western leaders have feted the Kurds of Northern Iraq, praising them as one of the few forces gutsy enough to face down the death cult of Isil.
Now, those leaders turn a blind eye, or even worse give an active nod, to attacks on Northern Iraqi Kurds by the Turkish air force.
Heroes one minute; fair game for massacre the next. In the long list of Western betrayals of former allies overseas, this one feels especially grotesque.
Last Friday, following months of negotiation with Washington, Turkey launched its first-ever air strikes against Isil in Syria.
A few hours later it started dropping bombs in Northern Iraq — not on Isil, but on the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, with which Turkey has been locked in bitter conflict since 1984.
WNU Editor: Brendan O'Neil's analysis is correct .... to say that there is a moral equivalence between a barbaric group that seems to have been teleported form the Middle Ages and a Marxist guerrilla outfit that wants to create a Kurdish homeland on Iraqi, Turkish and Syrian territory is a stretch .... but such is the state of affairs for how the Kurds are now being branded. Not surprising .... the Kurds that the West continues to support (YPG, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units in Syria) .... are also now being bombed by the Turkish air force .... and they are the one military force that has been the most effective against the Islamic State. But what makes this betrayal even worse is that Turkey has been a worthless ally in NATO since the war against the Islamic State started, more so as close links between Turkey and the Islamic state continue to be uncovered .... Official: Links Between ISIS and Turkey ‘Undeniable’ (PJ Media). Bottom line .... when the Kurds won a number of seats in the Turkish parliamentary elections last month .... thereby hampering and stopping Turkish President Erdogan's agenda, people started to speculate on what will the Turkish President do next .... now we know the answer to that question.
More Commentary On The Betrayal Of The Kurds
Has the U.S. Just Sold Out the Kurds? -- Dan De Luce, Foreign Policy
Turkey-Kurdish conflict: Every regional power has betrayed the Kurds so Turkish bombing is no surprise -- Robert Fisk, The Independent
'Kurds Have No Friends But The Mountains' Trends On Social Media -- Vocativ
Some Kurds angered at Turkish attacks on PKK, accuse US of betrayal -- Rudaw
Is Turkey Really Fighting ISIL? -- Neil Quilliam and Jonathan Friedman, On Islam
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