"Bernard-Henri Levy enters stage and 'doubts' Turkey's NATO future" (NewRepublic).
At this late hour, there is only one way to save what remains of Kobane, and that way is Turkey.
Erdogan, whose judgment has been clouded by his obsessional fear of seeing an embryonic Kurdish state created just outside his borders, must be reminded—once again—that Daesh is no less his enemy and that it is for Turkey that the bell tolls in Kobane.
He must be made to understand that if his increasingly authoritarian and benighted regime, one that strays ever farther from the secular foundations of Kemalism, is to preserve its chance to forge the economic partnerships with Europe (and eventually, the political partnerships) to which Turkey’s elites aspire and that the country sorely needs, that chance passes through Kobane and its defense: That chance depends on the aid delivered to the heroines and the heroes of the beleaguered city.
But we have to go even further and tell Erdogan, formally or informally, that the battle against Daesh is the moment of truth, the now or never, for the alliances and the system of collective security that was established in the region in the aftermath of the second world war, a system in which Turkey is more than an ordinary member, having become its eastern pillar when it joined NATO in 1952.
In 1991, Turkey only reluctantly joined in operations to support the civilian population of northern Iraq.
On March 1, 2003, Turkey’s Grand National Assembly, in a vote that cast a long shadow over the country’s relations with its allies, voted against allowing 62,000 American troops to pass through Turkey on their way to Baghdad or to be based in Turkey.
If Turkey stands down a third time—if Kobane becomes the name of yet another Turkish default, this one inexcusable—its future in NATO is in doubt.
The emissaries of President Barack Obama who have just arrived in Ankara should make this very clear.
French President François Hollande, who has given Turkey many signs of friendship, should assume the role of spokesman for France’s partners by informing Erdogan that Kobane is a rampart for Europe.
Here, as at the siege of Madrid, the world must declare, “They shall not pass.” Read the full story here. HT:
..."Bernard-Henri Levy enters stage and 'doubts' Turkey's NATO future: "
http://t.co/Lel1BXhhJ3 …
@Ziya_Meral pic.twitter.com/3P0obE17BB
— ISTANBUL THEMES (@ISTANBUL_THEMES) October 15, 2014
YPG spokesman compares #Kobane resistance against #ISIS to Stalingrad, Alamo, thanks those lending hand
#kobane pic.twitter.com/f7J8i3wvCq
— david lepeska (@dlepeska) October 15, 2014
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