How powerless is Europe in the face of the campaign Turkey is currently pursuing in the Syrian north against Kurdish militias? Opinions differed on "Maybrit Illner", but not far. It is clear that Europe is blackmailable - and by own fault. What makes the desolation even more bleak.
About 1,000 US soldiers left a border strip between the Turkish border and areas held by Kurdish YPG units. The simple presence of the Americans prevented an invasion of the "NATO partner" Turkey.
In January 2019, the expert Guido Steinberg explains to "Illner" that he had given a corresponding invitation to France, Great Britain and Germany. So it would have been just as good to be able to squat a contingent of a thousand European soldiers there, play cards and sometimes watch through binoculars.
The "Make your filth!" the US President, with whom he cleared the way for an invasion of the Turks, so is the usual security policy "och nope, better not!" the Europeans headed.
It is true that Europe, as EPP President Manfred Weber states, has "unfortunately not the power" to carry out world police tasks. For a symbolic securing of a narrow strip but it would have been enough. What was missing was the political will.
Sigmar Gabriel explains that the US withdrawal has already emerged under Obama, and that it was just as obvious as Erdogan's intention to smash Kurdish structures in northern Syria, especially the PKK. "We were very happy that we did not have to meddle ourselves," said Gabriel.
Video: Merkel announces that it will stop supplying weapons to Turkey
Adam Berry / Getty Images
Düzen Tekkal, a Yazidi journalist, recalls 12,000 YPG soldiers who "lost their lives" in the fight against the terrorist militia "Islamic State" (IS). Now they have been delivered by the disinterest of Europe and the withdrawal of the US "ice cold" Turkey. The Kurds, according to Tekkal, have always been the "boss" of Erdogan.
Gabriel agrees, but endeavors to differentiate. The PKK is a "organization forbidden even in Germany". Not because Ankara wanted it that way. But because organized crime such as arms trafficking, drug trafficking and extortion are prohibited.
Tekkal countered that the advance of the Turkish army had brought the Kurds together, "and indeed all Kurds", including those in Iraq who have nothing to do with the PKK. In addition, the Kurds are turning to their only partner in the region, from whom they hope for protection against the Turks' access - Bashar al-Assad.
@ DuezenTekkal: The #Kurden who go out on the street today, are by no means followers of the #PKK. They want this war to end because their loved ones are dying. # Turkey #Erdogan #North Syria #Syria #Waffrest #EU #NATO #IS #illner
- maybrit illner (@maybritillner) October 17, 2019If you come to him morally, Gabriel likes to switch from mischievous brooding in the "I'm chatting now out of the sewing box" mode. When he negotiated for the release of detained journalist Mesale Tolu in Turkey, his interlocutors showed him photographs of Kurds demonstrating in Germany - with pictures by Abdullah Öcalan and symbols of the PKK.
Mesale Tolu is also in the round and points out that the rebound of the conflict has already reached German cities. Kurdish or Turkish businesses are being attacked and, above all, "young people are being carried away by this policy". That is not just poison for the public order. But, by the way, too bad for integration.
Harald Tittel / DPA
Manfred Weber (at JU-Deutschlandtag): "We as Europeans must be able to protect our borders"
A particularly sad picture is given by EPP leader Weber, charged to a certain extent as the representative of the EU. That was, so Weber, "unable to act", unfortunately. At the same time, he, Weber, was no longer willing to be "blackmailed by Erdogan." Therefore, Europe can and should be able to "act economically against Turkey".
. @ ManfredWeber: I'm so sorry that we as Europeans let us set the pace. Although we always have to hold out the outstretched hand, but who threatens us, which lays down with the largest European economic power. # Turkey #Erdogan #Flugs #Syria #illner
- maybrit illner (@maybritillner) October 17, 2019What is it? Incapable or able? Weber tends to the latter and gives as an example the planned VW plant in Turkey, which is currently on ice. And what happens if Erdogan, as threatened, millions of Syrian refugees to Europe, Weber knows exactly: "We as Europeans must be able to protect our borders."
How well "we as Europeans" manage this was already visible in 2015. We as Germans are barely able or unwilling to accept the 20 or so more, namely known IS terrorists with a German passport, in order to bring them to trial. Gabriel advocates preparing for it now. And "not only when they arrive at the airport".
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At least, according to the unanimous opinion, Europe must gradually take care of its immediate neighborhood. Either with economic means. Or with those strange other methods that Turkish players are remembering with their military regards. "We'll have to get involved ourselves," said Gabriel, "and that will be very unpleasant".
According to Gabriel, his membership in NATO does not just hold Turkey - theoretically, for a long time now - from turning to Russia. But also about arming yourself: "I do not want to make big cheeks here today, but my children have to live under a nuclear-armed Turkey."
