Turkey, a U.S. Ally, Threatens to Widen War in Iraq
Kurdish rebels, seeking an autonomous Kurdistan, have been attacking Turkish troops from the sanctuary of northern Iraq. Turkey now threatens to send troops into the most peaceful region of Iraq. Complicating the problem was an attempt in the U.S. Congress to condemn Turkey for a massacre that took place almost a century ago.
by Melvin Rhodes
The world seems unable to get away from the Ottoman Empire, almost a century after its demise.
Throughout the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire was "the sick man of Europe." Its decline brought independence to a number of nations in the Balkans and North Africa. One of the consequences of its dismemberment was World War I, triggered by a Serbian nationalist's assassination of an Austrian archduke. Serbia was one of those countries that came into existence as the Ottomans gradually fell back to their Turkish homeland.
In 1914 they allied themselves with Germany and Austria against Britain, France and Russia. After the war, the empire was carved up at the Treaty of Sèvres and a number of new nations entered the world scene, with complications and frictions that continue to this day:
• Saddam Hussein's claim on Kuwait, which led to the first Persian Gulf War, went back to the Ottoman Empire's regional divisions.
• Syria's incessant interference in Lebanon similarly goes back to that time.
• The pre-2003 Sunni domination of majority Shiite Iraq similarly went back to the Ottomans.
• The 30-year-old division of Cyprus owes its origin to the Ottomans, who settled on the island centuries ago.
• The demise of the Ottoman Empire set the stage for the current never-ending conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians.
• And now the Kurds are the center of attention as they push for a unified autonomous state of their own.
