Here is link to my column in Gulan this week:

http://www.gulan-media.com/h619/g31.pdf


And here is the text in English:

EUROPE CLOSES EYES FROM A COMING STORM
 

 
 

What was the best selling book in Turkey two years ago? "Metal storm" written by Orkun Ucar and Burak Turna. It tells about war between Turkey and America. It starts May 2007 in North Iraq when American army arrests Turkish soldiers near Kerkuk. In the novel Turkish army enters North Iraq to help Turkmens.

 

I have not heard that this book would have been translated to English or German. This is a pity, because it would be important book for Europeans to read.

 

"Metal storm" is fiction but many people in Turkey think it could be true. Development in South Kurdistan during recent days is so frightening that the events of the first chapter are not impossible. Turkish politicians want to arrange a conference in Kerkuk against the will of the Kurdish Regional Government.

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Does mass media in Europe write about this conference? No. European people do not even know that 250 000 Turkish soldiers have been waiting almost one year near the Iraqian boarder ready to cross it. There is danger of an armed conflict of the same scale than the one last summer in Lebanon but Europe does not want to see it.\n

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Europeans discuss about the Cyprus issue and wonder whether a Muslim country ever can be member in EU. The discussion nowadays is similar than five and ten years ago. People in Europe do not understand that the situation in Turkey and on its boarders is changing all the time. The question of Turkey's membership in EU is used as a tool in domestic politics in various countries when it is time for elections - with images and information about Turkey which are out of date.\n

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I really do not understand why EU is so helpless. It seems that European countries have learned nothing from the Balkan war last decade. If there will a war between Turks and Kurds it will be a big surprise for most European people.\n

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1991 was a cold winter in the mountains and a horrifying year for the Kurdish refugees. But they did not cause so much trouble for EU as the Balkan refugees some years later. Does EU think that Kurds are far away in their mountains and a possible war there would not be harmful for Europe?\n",1] ); //-->

 

Does mass media in Europe write about this conference? No. European people do not even know that 250 000 Turkish soldiers have been waiting almost one year near the Iraqian boarder ready to cross it. There is danger of an armed conflict of the same scale than the one last summer in Lebanon but Europe does not want to see it.

 

Europeans discuss about the Cyprus issue and wonder whether a Muslim country ever can be member in EU. The discussion nowadays is similar than five and ten years ago. People in Europe do not understand that the situation in Turkey and on its boarders is changing all the time. The question of Turkey's membership in EU is used as a tool in domestic politics in various countries when it is time for elections - with images and information about Turkey which are out of date.

 

I really do not understand why EU is so helpless. It seems that European countries have learned nothing from the Balkan war last decade. If there will a war between Turks and Kurds it will be a big surprise for most European people.

 

1991 was a cold winter in the mountains and a horrifying year for the Kurdish refugees. But they did not cause so much trouble for EU as the Balkan refugees some years later. Does EU think that Kurds are far away in their mountains and a possible war there would not be harmful for Europe?

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EU should understand that the situation is now different than 1991. USA is making co-operation with Kurds, opposite than fifteen years ago.\n

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Maybe the decision makers in EU simply do not know what to do with the coming storm. They just pray for a miracle in Turkey-Iraq boarder or hope that the danger will go over if they refuse to see it.\n

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EU should understand that the situation is now different than 1991. USA is making co-operation with Kurds, opposite than fifteen years ago.

 

Maybe the decision makers in EU simply do not know what to do with the coming storm. They just pray for a miracle in Turkey-Iraq boarder or hope that the danger will go over if they refuse to see it.