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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 18-Jul-2010
18-Jul-10 News -- Turkey and Syria team up against the Kurds

Web Log - July, 2010

18-Jul-10 News -- Turkey and Syria team up against the Kurds

Scandal in Turkey as pilots may be siding with PKK terrorists

Syria's President al-Assad's 'wasted decade' in office

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was sworn into office on July 17, 2000. On the tenth anniversary of his presidency, a Human Rights Watch report is accusing al-Assad of having presided over "A Wasted Decade."

In his inaugural speech on July 17, 2000, al-Assad spoke of the need for "creative thinking," "transparency," and "democracy," according to the report. However, those promises were short-lived, as he has increasing resorted imprisonment, censorship and torture to govern.

Al-Assad has been particularly harsh with the Kurdish minority, which makes up about 10% of the population, living largely in the northeast of the country.

Al-Assad's government continues to avoid rectifying a 1962 census that stripped some 120,000 Kurds of their citizenship, according to al-Jazeera. The number of stateless Kurds has grown to around 300,000 in the intervening decades, making it difficult for nearly 18 per cent of the country's largest non-Arab ethnic minority to get jobs, register weddings and obtain state services.

Turkey and Syria team up against the Kurds

Turkey has been fighting the Kurds as well, and had has to deal with terrorist attacks by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). What's changed in the last year is that Turkey and Syria are now working together against the Kurds, according to the LA Times.

Hundreds of Syrian Kurds have been rounded up and jailed in the last few weeks, accused of having connections to the PKK.

An even more dramatic change has occurred recently: Syria is using Israeli military technology to pursue the Kurds, according to Debka.

For years, when Israel and Turkey were military allies, Israel sold military technology to Turkey, under the condition that it would not be resold to Syria or Iran. But now, with Israeli-Turkish relations collapsing, Turkey has been providing Israeli high-tech drones to Syria. The drones are being used to track fleeing Kurds down, so that they can be tracked down.

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Turkey's National Intelligence Organization has intercepted phone calls between Turkish air force politics indicating that they sympathize with the PKK terrorists that they're supposed to be targeting, resulting in a major scandal. Zaman

Iran continues to blame the U.S. and anyone else that it can for Friday's terrorist attack by Jundullah. "Jundullah has been supported by America for its terrorist acts in the past ... America will have to await the fallout of such criminal and savage measures," said an official of the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world. Arab Times

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the 18-Jul-10 News -- Turkey and Syria team up against the Kurds thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (18-Jul-2010) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 18-Jul-2010 18-Jul-10 News -- Turkey and Syria team up against the Kurds

Syria's President al-Assad's 'wasted decade' in office

Turkey and Syria team up against the Kurds

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 18-Jul-2010
18-Jul-10 News -- Turkey and Syria team up against the Kurds