Turkey:  Fight the Persians, ally with the Kurds
Turkey: Fight the Persians, ally with the Kurds

Nearly 8 years ago, just when Turkey was about to invade Iraq and kill the Iraqi Kurds, I sent a letter to then-PM Erdogan, now President Erdogan, warning him the Iraqi Kurds were Turkey’s ally and the Persian Iranians were Turkey’s enemy.  Today, Turkey is threatening to close its southern NATO-base, Incirlik to US military flights that support the Kurds and its Syrian militias are about to attack Kurdish forces to their east.  But, from 8 years ago to today, it is even more urgent for Turkey to ally with the Kurds to fight the Persians.

The text of my letter to then-PM Erdogan dated June 4, 2007, ran as follows:

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Embassy of the Republic of Turkey

2525 Massachusetts Ave. NW

Washington, DC 20008

Re:  Turkey’s Security

For the security of Turkey, I beg you not to attack or invade Northern Kurdish Iraq.

Ask yourself one question: Would Turkey rather have the Peshmerga as a suicidal enemy against a Turkish invasion to the south, or have the Peshmerga as a suicidal ally against a future Iranian invasion from the South.

The Kurds are your indispensable, reliable, and sole indigenous ally in your present and future strategic battle against Iran.  By accommodating the Kurds, Turkey will gain, at almost no cost, the entire northern Iraq as its forward deployed defense line against the Iranian northern encroachment that is undoubtedly on its way.  By fighting the Kurds, Turkey will not only lose a tactical tripwire to an Iranian push, but also lose the Kurds as a strategic battle-hardened military backbone which be first to absorb Iranian advances.

In fact, by not attacking Northern Iraq and building a Kurdish alliance instead, Turkey will, without a shot, project a strategic threat against Iran: namely, Iran’s 5 million Kurds.  By treating the Kurds as allies, Turkey will put the entire Iranian Kurdish population in play, to Iran’s detriment,.  

The strategic calculus is so compelling; I believe it is absolutely vital that Turkey carefully triple-check and completely re-analyze its military intelligence of the recent terrorist attacks.  The Iranians, Syrians, or even al-Qaeda may have committed the attacks so as to falsely create a strategic wedge between Turkey and the Kurds and Turkey and the US, and provoke the very reaction Turkey is committing.

Don’t allow the Iranians to bait you into a losing tactical game of checkers against the Kurds, when you have a winning strategic game of chess against the Iranians.

Don’t look at the Kurds as Turkey’s past enemy, but as Turkey’s future ally.  Treat both Turkish and Iraqi Kurds as brothers in battle.  Very soon, Turkish and Kurdish soldiers will be dying side-by-side against the waxing Iranian Mahdish menace.

  

I have enclosed my article Iran: The Fourth Reichastan 2.2 for your review.  I have also enclosed a 1993 Jerusalem Post article about me.  If you want to see a small part of my presentation with an old version of my 3-D topographic map, google “Mark Langfan Shalom America.”

Thank you for your consideration.

Very truly yours,

Mark Langfan

(End of letter) 

Comment: 

The letter above, for some reason, was leaked, by someone close to PM Erdogan, to the Turkish press and a Mr. Burak Bekdil, a Turkish journalist with Hurriyet Daily News, wrote about my 2007 letter.

1. First, if there weren’t the Iraqi Kurds, Pres. Erdogan would have had to invent them.  The Iraqi Kurds are protecting Turkey’s entire south-eastern front from the Persians.  Yes, they represent some future threat to Turkey.  However, the issue is not a future problem with Turkey’s Kurds, but the immediate existential threat of Persian contiguous empire from Iran, through Iraq, and Syria, to Lebanon.  The key is Turkey - it controls the oil flow from the Iraqi Kurds and is where the Kurds get hard cash.  Any oil sent through the Iraqi Government means the Kurds will see pennies on the dollar for their oil.  So, Turkey shouldn’t worry about the Kurds of Iraq, or the Kurds of Syria.

2. Second, Turkey has a tough slog in Syria against the Islamic State and the Iranian-backed Syrian Puppet Government.  The last thing Turkey needs is to waste its order of battle against the Syrian Kurds.  It would only enrage the Kurds living in Turkey.  Leave the Kurds alone and deal with the one true threat: The Persians.

Eight years of events have proven my advice of 2007 was sound and in the best interests of Turkey.  Please accept my current advice. I believe it will prove just as accurate and just as proper for Turkey.