Thomas Semanic
1-24-18
Dr. Muck
U.S & Turkey
On January 24th, 2018 President Trump called the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warning him about growing tensions between the United States and Turkey. The United states is funding the Kurdish militias which Turkey hates and has asked us to end support for that militia. This is a switch in rhetoric from the White House after President Trump stated he would side more with Turkey in disputes with Kurdish forces. Nevertheless, President Trump attempted to ease tensions and reiterate that ISIS is the real enemy here. Turkey argues the Kurds is not different from the Islamic state and have been fighting against them for years. In Syria, there was a Turkish warplane launched a shell that fell right near a city where United States troops are training and helping Kurdish forces. The United States is worried there can be direct conflict with Turkey and be forced to use military force. The Kurdish forces are also worried they will be abandoned by the United States if Turkey were to make a larger attack due to the inconsistent messages from the White House.
I think the United States needs to continue to support the Kurdish forces because of their role in fighting the Islamic state and stand against the authoritarian Turkish regime. However, that does not mean President Trump should raise tensions with Turkey. We do not need any more problems than we already have. As long as Turkey stays away from our military base were good and I think they will. I think it is unlikely that Turkey would engage in direct military conflict with the United States, that would not be smart of them. We know were more powerful and if something were to happen we could respond respectively but, let’s not escalate things further. Things are complicated in the Middle East because even Turkey wants the Islamic state gone but, they dislike the rebellious nature of the Kurdish militia. It does make sense why tensions have arose again with these two nations because the fight against the Islamic state is apparently coming to an end. That is great news however, I think we need to make sure that the fight is won and secure and until then we need to rely on Kurdish forces to aid us in that fight. Forget Turkey and their wishes, just be respectful and keep things as calm as possible. No way should we allow the authoritarian regime to suppress a rebellion. Especially, due to the fact this article states that there are prolonged American citizen detentions in Turkey. Consequences I can think of would involve Russia who are good friends with the Turkish government. Worst case scenario I see is if the Turkish were to attack the United states in some way, shape or form that may mean they are confident they have the support from the Russians if things got out of hand. That is one issue with Russia we do not need to add after the million other issues we have with them. Again despite the soft rhetoric on russia from the White House and the good relationship they’d hope to have with Russia, that relationship is also deteriorating. I believe that is unlikely to happen therefore, we need to continue to support Kurdish forces in order to combat the Islamic State while trying to keep tensions down as much as possible unless Turkey were to make an attack on our military base in Syria.
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