Thursday, September 19, 2013

Turkey Should Shut Down Jihadists on Border
 Davutoglu said: “A criminal and intruder can only be stopped by deterrence. If he feared the international community’s punishment, would he have the courage to violate the Turkish border after throwing barrel bombs 20 to 30 kilometers [12.5 to 18.6 miles] to Turkey’s border? If you are not a deterrent, you lay the grounds for war. This border is also a NATO border. A NATO border has been violated. Turkey has done what’s necessary based on international norms for its national security. NATO solidarity requires cooperation on issues such as this.” On Sept. 17, Muharrem Ince, the deputy chairman of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) parliamentary group, said, “Turkey should certainly do as necessary for those violating its border. But Turkey’s borders are not only about its borders in the air. Turkey’s land borders with Syria are totally violated.”[[[He added: “What does it serve to shoot down a Syrian helicopter while all these other violations are taking place and the peace talks in Paris are underway? Look at the land borders. Armed groups easily come and go through these borders ... You may act on one issue, but what do you do on others?”]]]][[[[Altan Tan, a pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputy, said: “The government should declare its foreign policy bankrupt. It prepared itself for an immediate intervention. It dove into an empty pool before anyone. It’s now trying to do something. It’s not able to shoot, break and create an excuse for any military intervention. It can’t do it alone.”]]]].Turkey should also abide by its responsibilities as a NATO member country and stop allowing its borders be used by armed groups — including radical jihadist groups like al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra. There are so many eyewitness accounts of the group's presence along the border, as well as the ease with which the border can be crossed, that it's impossible to deny. .The reason is simply this: Many in the region blame the United States and Western countries more than they blame Ankara for the presence of these radical extremist groups in Turkey and how they have come to be the dominant figures in the opposition to the Assad regime. People in the region claim that that is exactly what the Westerners want: to cause more chaos in Syria, then spread the madness to Turkey.


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