Quote Originally Posted by wm View Post
The antipathy for Kurds within the Turkish military is well known. They really do not like getting shot or blown up by the PKK rebels. (Can you blame them? I would not have been too partial to having my troops shot at by Louisiana Cajun separatists)...
....I saw that movie!



Seriously though, its important to keep in mind that the "antipathy" for Kurds in Turkey long predates the PKK. The Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Turkey, and, since the foundation of the state, the only one that potentially threatens its territorial integrity. Almost immediately after Mustafa Kemal rallied the nation, kicked out the Greeks and forced the WWI allies to recognize the new Turkey at the Treaty of Lausanne, the country was wracked with major Kurdish revolts. The Sheikh Said rebellion in 1925, the Agri Dag revolt that lasted from 1927 to 1930 and the Dersim rebellion in 1937 all cemented in the minds of the government and the military that the Kurds were "the" internal threat to the Turkish nation.