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Hürriyet Op-Ed Argues, Saudis’ Sunni Alliance Is Absurd and Dangerous, Threatens Sectarian War, or Worse

Dec. 18, 2015 (EIRNS)—A senior commentator in an editorial appearing in the Turkish Hürriyet Daily News, Yusuf Kanli, denounced the Saudi-led Sunni alliance supposedly against terrorism, calling it absurd and dangerous, and saying that it could start a "global war."

Kanli’s op-ed in today’s issue makes its sharp lunge, asking, "Who created al-Qaeda? Who fathered the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)? Who has been financing and in every way possible supporting those ‘Taliban’ (Students) groups, or other ‘cemaats’ obsessed with a certain school of Islam, categorically declaring the rest of the Muslim and non-Muslim world as infidel or heathen, which must be exterminated?"

Kanli warns,

"what is being created will not be a Muslim alliance to fight the terrorist menace wreaking havoc in the Muslim world: It will shun Iran, Iraq, and Syria, and everything related to the Shi’a, thus consolidating the already huge division between the two main schools of Islam."

He goes on that this most likely will lead to "full-fledged war—between Sunni and Shi’a Islam." As an alliance member, Turkey would be the "NATO link," and but in fact, it is aimed at Iran, as the case of Yemen demonstrates. Worse, he continues,

"this new grouping is nothing short of an adventure that might further complicate the region’s security scene, if not push it into an all-out regional—or, God forbid, global—war."

He further asks, "What if a need for boots on the ground arises? Will Turkey send troops for out-of-Turkey operations as a ‘requirement’ of its new alliance? What if a confrontation with the ‘government elements’ of Iran, Iraq, or Syria eventually takes place while fighting terrorists somewhere in Syrian or Iraqi territories? Will the Turkish military engage in combat? In short, what will be Turkey’s contributions to the new alliance?

"It appears that there is an insistence on insanity in Turkey’s foreign and defense policies."

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