Turkey; a history of mistreating Kurds; the chickens come home to roost

BRUSSELS — Turkey surprised European Union leaders on Monday by hitting them with a new set of demands if it is to help stem the flow of refugees from Syria and Iraq and other migrants seeking to enter Europe.   The New York Times, March 7, 2016

Two items in the Times article  are striking: Turkey's renewed demand for membership in the European Union; and Turkey's fear of the Kurds.

From the Times article:

Turkey now is going to raise the costs for Europe,” [Fredrik Erixon, the director of the European Center for International Political Economy]  added, “and to such an extent that Europe may not be able to oppose Turkish goals in the region, including how to deal with Syria and the Kurds.”

A chilling thought, if you support Syrian and Turkish Kurds.

 Turkey is fighting Islamic extremists across its border with Syria as part of an international coalition that includes the United States, and it is confronting Kurdish militias that the Turks say are also a terrorist threat.

There is no evidence that Turkey is now fighting Islamist Extremists  in Syria.  See, e.g., Prospects for a Turkish Incursion into Syria, 9 Feb 2016;  Turkey v Syria's Kurds v Islamic State - BBC News, 19 Feb 2016.

The main Kurdish militant group in Syria is the Yekîneyên Parastina Gel (YG), supported by the United States and Russia and opposed by Turkey.

The YPG is related to the main armed service of the Kurdish Supreme Committee, the government of Syrian Kurdistan.  YPG considers itself a democratic people's army and conducts internal elections as a method of appointing officers.  Wikipedia, People's Protection Units

The Turks have lobbied hard to get the European Union and the United States to declare the YPG  a terrorist organization.  Instead, the United States and Russia are supporting the YPG, perhaps because it is the most effective fighting group against the Islamic State.

It is possible that the Turkey's renewed demands for membership in the European Union at this time is a loss leader, a demand that Turkey is willing to give up in return for a declaration that the YPG is a terrorist group.

Turkey's real problem is that it has treated Kurds in Turkey badly ever since it gained control of many Kurds following the end of the Ottoman Empire after WWI.


Kurds were guaranteed an  independent Kurdistan in 1920, by the Treaty of Sèvres between the allied powers and the OttomanEmpire following the Empire's destruction in WWI.

Instead, England and France  divided  Kurds among Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria, where they were, in the main, treated badly.

Now, thanks to Bushco's Iraq Fiasco and thanks to Bagdad's ineptitude, Kurds in Iraq have virtual autonomy in the Kurdish areas of Iraq; and thanks to their fierce fight against the Islamic State,  they have de facto control of Kirkuk  -- a major oil producing area in the region.

But Iraq Kurdistan is landlocked.  If Syrian Kurds and their Kurdish cousins in Turkey succeed in establishing an autonomous region across the north of Syria, tIraqi Kurdistan will have a corridor to the sea and can escapeTurkish control of their oil.

That's what Turkey is fearful of, in addition to retribution; an what Kurd s most desire.

Th West should do what it can to make up for the inexcusable abrogation of the Trusty of Sèvres,  Kurds would have autonomy from Iraq to the
Medeterraian.  To call them "Islamic extremists" is merely cant and not worthy of Turkey.


Turkey's application four European Union membership has languished for years. Turkey had turned its eyes Eastward to the Turkic Council and China. There are, however,   hints that all is not smooth sailing for Turkey there, either.

For many years, Turkey has ostensibly been a candidate for European Union membership, but Mr. Erdogan’s authoritarian turn has made that seem like an ever more distant prospect.

Human rights observers reacted angrily to a comment over the weekend in which the German interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, said, “We should not be referees when it comes to human rights.”

The New York Times

Turkey Places Conditions on E.U. for Migrant Help

By JAMES KANTERMARCH 7, 2016

A razor-wire fence along the Greek-Macedonian border on Monday. About 13,000 migrants are stuck on the Greek side. Credit Dimitar Dilkoff/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

BRUSSELS — Turkey surprised European Union leaders on Monday by hitting them with a new set of demands if it is to help stem the flow of refugees from Syria and Iraq and other migrants seeking to enter Europe. 

Leaders assessed the demands at an emergency summit meeting in Brussels, where Turkey’s prime minister asked for billions of euros in new assistance, easier access to visas for Turks to go to Europe and the dramatic acceleration of talks on Turkey’s membership in the bloc, a discussion that has languished for years.

The toughening of the Turkish position underscored Ankara’s apparent attempt to win more support from Europe if it is going to be expected to protect the bloc from hundreds of thousands of new asylum seekers.

But after a long day of negotiations that stretched into the early hours of Tuesday, the European leaders had made only partial progress, with many of them still assessing the terms. Even so, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said leaders would meet again in Brussels on March 18.

Migrants at the Greek-Macedonian border near the Greek village of Idomeni on Monday. Credit Dimitar Dilkoff/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A proposal put forward by Turkey “is a breakthrough if it is to be realized, if it is to be implemented,” Ms. Merkel told a news conference at the end of the summit.

Ms. Merkel said that under the proposed deal, for each person resettled directly from camps in Turkey to Europe, Turkey would in exchange accept one person who does not qualify for asylum in Europe to be returned to Turkey.

The idea was “to break, if you like, the vicious circle of entering an illegal boat,” Ms. Merkel said, adding that the deal could restore “orderly migration.”

David Cameron, the British prime minister, agreed that “we do have the basis for a breakthrough, which is the possibility that in the future all migrants who arrive in Greece will be returned to Turkey.”

The Turkish demands, however, laid bare the European Union’s weakening position and signaled that the difficulties — and costs — of managing the crisis might only rise the longer it stumbled on.

Hoping to avoid a repeat of last year, when hundreds of thousands of refugees overwhelmed the authorities from Greece to Germany and beyond, European leaders were weighing whether to declare “closed” the route migrants have taken through the Balkans to Western Europe.

But such a step threatens to bottle up migrants in Greece and has sharply divided European leaders, with Ms. Merkel reluctant to burden Greece, which is trying to regain its economic footing after a six-year debt crisis.

There are 13,000 migrants stuck on the Greek border with Macedonia.

“You end up in situations like this when you have neglected to build the capacity to deal with the bigger issues of our time,” said Fredrik Erixon, the director of the European Center for International Political Economy, a research group in Brussels.

“Turkey now is going to raise the costs for Europe,” he added, “and to such an extent that Europe may not be able to oppose Turkish goals in the region, including how to deal with Syria and the Kurds.”

Turkey is fighting Islamic extremists across its border with Syria as part of an international coalition that includes the United States, and it is confronting Kurdish militias that the Turks say are also a terrorist threat.

As the meeting in Brussels got underway, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey reiterated calls for a “safe zone” in Syria where migrants could be free from the violence that has torn the country apart over the past five years.

Belgium is the latest country to suspend the rules of the Schengen accord allowing the free movement of citizens across most of Europe’s internal borders.

In a televised speech on Monday, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said the country had spent $10 billion caring for the Syrian refugees. He said the European Union had been slow to disburse the 3 billion euros (about $3.3 billion) it had already pledged to assist refugees in Turkey. “The prime minister is in Brussels right now,” Mr. Erdogan said of Mr. Davutoglu. “I hope he returns with that money.”

The additional money, amounting to about €3 billion, that Turkey requested on Monday was a precondition for curbing new migrants from crossing the Aegean Sea to reach Europe.

Mr. Davutoglu also surprised European leaders in a negotiating session that dragged into Monday morning by putting Turkey’s attempts to join the European Union — a process known as accession — on the agenda.

“Turkey is ready to work with the E.U.,” Mr. Davutoglu said Monday. “Turkey is ready to be a member of the E.U. as well.” He added, “I hope this summit, which will not focus only on irregular migration but also on the Turkish accession process to the E.U., will be a success story and a turning point in our relations.”

Migrants rushed to get firewood in a makeshift camp on the Greek-Macedonian border on Sunday. Credit Dimitar Dilkoff/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, which represents the leaders of the 28-nation European Union, included language about closing the Balkan route in a draft of a summit meeting statement, reinforcing his blunt warning last week to migrants who are seeking a better life in Europe but are not eligible for political asylum.

Ms. Merkel resisted the wording of Mr. Tusk’s statement about closing the Balkan route.

Germany also has been sharply at odds with a neighbor, Austria, after the government in Vienna restricted the flow of migrants, threatening the bloc’s system of passport-free travel.

Others would like to see European borders stay shut.

“If we bring migrants from Greece or Turkey directly into Europe, that’s an invitation to waltz,” Hungary’s right-wing prime minister, Viktor Orban, told reporters here. He added, “Borders must be closed, and direct resettlement is out of the question, at least as far as Hungary is concerned.”

The record flow of more than one million migrants to the Continent last year exposed the inadequacy of the European Union’s response to the geopolitical and humanitarian crisis caused by Syria’s civil war. More than 140,000 people have arrived in the European Union by sea so far this year.

Now much of the attention is on how to stop migrants from reaching Europe in the first place — and to distinguish Syrians and Iraqis, whose claims to asylum are generally viewed sympathetically, from those who are fleeing poverty and chaos elsewhere.

For many years, Turkey has ostensibly been a candidate for European Union membership, but Mr. Erdogan’s authoritarian turn has made that seem like an ever more distant prospect.

Human rights observers reacted angrily to a comment over the weekend in which the German interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, said, “We should not be referees when it comes to human rights.”

Melissa Eddy contributed reporting from Berlin, Palko Karasz from London, and Ceylan Yeginsu from Istanbul.