Why do Turks hate so many other groups?

[0]

They hate Armenians. Look at the genocide they committed.

They hate Greeks. They ethnically cleansed them.

They hate Kurds. They threaten to take action in Northern Iraq.

Who do they like?

Why are they so conerned about these other groups? Is it because the Ottoman empire's dramatic collapse?

 

[Schadenfroh]

Dont forget the Russians, but I can easily see why they hate them.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

It would be interesting to hear someone provide a sympathetic Turkish perspective. Perhaps the Turks feel that they have very legitimate reasons? I don't know, but I suspect that the Turks might ask reciprocal questions about the Kurds and the Greeks, etc.

 

[sandorski]

I imagine it has to do with their place in History. They used to rule that whole region and likely still have a sense of Superiority and possibly those various groups hate them to this day because of that History. I really don't know though, just musing.

 

[Tom]

Originally posted by: sandorski
I imagine it has to do with their place in History. They used to rule that whole region and likely still have a sense of Superiority and possibly those various groups hate them to this day because of that History. I really don't know though, just musing.

yea, i would say that's the reason they have deep seated feelings. Collapsed empires take a while to get over.

 

[WHAMPOM]

Imperial; arrogance? Or small we-we syndrome?

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: 0
They hate Armenians. Look at the genocide they committed.
not sure on that one
They hate Greeks. They ethnically cleansed them.
land disputes over cyprus I think it was
They hate Kurds. They threaten to take action in Northern Iraq.
they let a lot of the kurds into turkey and now kurds want there own nation on turkish soil
Who do they like?
well look at thier neighbors ...Iran, Iraq, syria...etc
Why are they so conerned about these other groups? Is it because the Ottoman empire's dramatic collapse?

 

[Aimster]

WTF is up with this thread?

Turkey doesn't hate anyone. They are a NATO nation.

Turks and Greeks get along just fine and consider themselves brothers. Only the ignorant ones filled with hate will find a reason to hate the other side.

As for the Kurds.. hmmm Iran, Turkey and Iraq have problems with them. It is not just a Turkish problem. So long as the Kurds keep blowing themselves up killing civilians why should these nations listen to them? Same things the Israelis are doing with the Palestinians.

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: Aimster

Turks and Greeks get along just fine and consider themselves brothers. Only the ignorant ones filled with hate will find a reason to hate the other side.

They have made a good deal of progress in recent years, but relations haven't really been tested in a serious situation. Start poking the old wounds again and all bets are off...

 

[CPA]

It's because for the most part they are irrelevant.

 

[f95toli]

AFAIK they don't "hate" anyone.
However, Turkey is by design (and I mean that litterarly) a very "nationalistic" nation.
Ataturk founded what is today Turkey after the fall of the Ottoman Empire (after WWI). He was determined to create a modern, sekular, state akin to the rest of the countries in Europe. The problem was of course that the population of Turkey at the time wasn't very interested in sekular reforms. Moreover, no one felt "turkish" (for obvious reasons, Turkey did not exist before that) and there were many ethnic groups in the country. Hence, there was no "national identity".

Ataturks solution to these problems was legislation and a very strong and powerfull army. The idea was simply to force everyone to become "turks". To a certain extent this has been succesfull but it has also lead to a very brutal treatment of minorities that did not accept this new order, e.g. the Kurds.
Even today they have some absurd lawas agains insulting "turkishness" (the famous article 301); to some people Turkey is by definition "good" and can do nothing wrong.
I suspect this is the main reason why the armenian genocide is such a hot topic after all these year; the idea of a genocide imples that Turkey can do something wrong.

 

[chcarnage]

The Turkish-Armenian relationship is in bad condition. However Armenia recently sent some negotiators to Turkey, maybe this is the first step to diplomatic relations between the two countries (Turkey recognises Armenia but doesn't have diplomatic contacts to it). Well I won't say that Turkey admits the genocide soon because that's a domestic policy issue, too, with no doubt. But maybe the common border will be opened in the medium term.

The relationship with Greece is better than you think, some territorial disputes are unsolved (about sea with potential oil ressources or of military value) but Greece is one of the biggest promoters of Turkish EU membership now. In the Cyprus conflict, the internationally recognised Cyprus is the main antagonist of the Turks, Cyprus isn't that much under Greek influence as it used to be.

Yeah, the relationship with the Republic of Cyprus is icy...

Some of the Kurds desire an independent country or a higher grade of autonomy and no country will accept at least the first thing lightly, a loss of territory. I'm not saying Turkey is dealing with this issue in the right way! It's just an explanation why the Kurds are oppressed in Turkey, Iran and in the past in Iraq, too.

Turkey has an up-and-down relationship with Iran and Russia. They have many economic ties but also compete for economic influence (read: pipelines) in the region and in Iran's case, it's also an ideologically influenced competition. In recent years, the relationships were in a relatively good state.

For two years, the relationship with Syria was stable now. They had some serious disputes about the line of the border, the Turkish-Israeli alliance and Syrian support for the Kurdish PKK.

Originally posted by: 0
Who do they like?

Turkey has good relations to Azerbajan, with which it sides in the Karabach dispute (against Armenia). It also has regular or good relations with the other "Turk" countries (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan und Kazakhstan) and makes some efforts to further improve their cooperation.

It also has good relations with Israel and even makes military exercises with Israel.

So much for the region... Then of course the relationship with the USA is mostly excellent, the relations to Europe are fair or excellent, too. I don't really know about Turkish relations to the Far East.

//Bulgaria and Greece are on the buddy list nowadays, too.