Nation building by force in Ukraine and the Middle East

28 October 2014

It is amazing how the glasses through which we view the world can colour what we see. Here is a story of two civil wars seen through radically different lenses.

The world has been gripped of late with the plight of the Kurds of Kobani, and rightly so. They have been fighting against the militants of Islamic State (IS) – a party to civil wars in both Iraq and Syria in which both governments and opposition forces appear to have committed war crimes – and, until recently, have been unsupported in their struggle. Turkey has long been afraid of giving succour to its own Kurdish minority,with whom it is in threatened peace negotiations. Ankara is also at loggerheads with the government of Bashar al Assad, IS’ enemy, against whom it would far rather see NATO firepower directed.

As a result, Turkey had, until a little over a week ago, refused to allow volunteers from its own regions to come to the aid of their kin over the border. Turkish tanks on the border faced inward – aimed at its own Kurdish population rather than their fellows’ IS nemesis. The Western world, moved by the Kurds’ plight, placed the Turkish government under seemingly intolerable pressure until it eventually cracked. The fact that Syria, as a sovereign state, might also have a view on the issue, does not seem to have entered either Turkey or its allies’ equations.

Ankara has now promised a safe corridor to Kurdish volunteers to support the beleaguered defenders while the US and its allies have dropped weapons to assist them.

Indeed, all parties to the civil war in Syria have been receiving fighters and materiel from abroad. While the fall of Mosul allowed IS access to Iraqi government funds and military equipment, it would appear that IS, and other Syrian rebel groups, have long received a steady supply of weapons, money and ammunition from wealthy donors in states traditionally allied to the West, such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The flow of fighters to IS is seen as a major threat by all states in the region, prompting legislative attempts to stop them from countries as far afield as Australia.

Meanwhile, some 2500 km to the North, another civil war has been stuttering through a partial ceasefire in Donetsk, in Eastern Ukraine. Here, Russian speaking Ukrainian separatists have been involved in a six month conflict with the central government. Again, since the

INTERNATIONAL

Nation building by force in Ukraine and the Middle East

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