How is the U.S. responsible for the Turkish oppression of the Kurds?
U.S. weapons sales encourage the Turkish leadership to see a solution only in military terms. In southeast Turkey, entire villages are being destroyed and huge numbers of people are being displaced. Refugees have flooded the larger cities, where they can’t find work. As a consequence, they’ve been marginalized. And who helps them? Nobody helps them except for Rafah, the Islamic Party. They help them in the same way that the old Democratic Party machine helped immigrants in the United States during the 19th century, building their loyalty for generations. In Turkey, it’s exactly the same. Rafah’s well-organized social welfare policy has been able to win the loyalty of the Kurds, who are now a major element in Turkey’s Islamic revival. Even as we patrol “no-fly zones” to protect the Kurds in Iraq against Saddam Hussein. The relationship between Ankara and Washington is first and foremost a military one. The U.S. saw Turkey as part of the bulwark against the Soviet Union and now sees it a
