James Bay New Horizons 234 Menzies Street, Victoria
2 Part Discussion Topic: Turkey’s Incursion Into Syria (Part 1), and the Canadian Federal Election (Part 2)
Part 1
We will discuss the new war which has erupted in the Middle East, and the destiny of the Kurdish people.
Turkey has launched a military offensive against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of forces led by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). Turkey says it wants a 30km ‘safe zone’ along the Turkey-Syria border for returning Syrian refugees. Turkey also regards the YPG as terrorists influencing and supporting the PKK party (Kurdistan Workers Party) in Turkey.
Turkey has openly stated for years that it wanted to enter Iraq and defeat the YPG, but the presence of US troops allied with the YPG to fight ISIS in the region had prevented Turkey from acting. Trump has now unilaterally pulled all US troops out of Iraq opening the door for Turkey’s attack.
The UN and many other countries have denounced Turkey’s actions and some have called it an invasion.
Our discussion should also be about the destiny of the Kurdish people.
Background about the Kurds: “Kurds are an Iranian ethnic group native to a mountainous region of Western Asia known as Kurdistan, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northern Syria.” -Wikipedia
The United Nations has said that 100,000 civilians have been displaced: https://www.aljazeera.com/
“The assault has raised international alarm over its mass displacement of civilians and the possibility of Islamic State militants escaping from Kurdish prisons leading to a revival of the jihadist group’s insurgency in Syria.”: https://www.reuters.com/
“International criticism grows as Turkish offensive enters fourth day”: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/
Questions
Was Donald Trump right to pull American troops out of Iraq “bringing the boys home”?
Could this Turkish incursion develop into a bigger war? Which countries are the biggest stakeholders?
Will the Kurds ever achieve their dream of a sovereign state of Kurdistan?
[Your question here]
Part 2
We will return to the discussion we had at the previous Cafe with the remaining time.
“The Liberals and Conservatives have been trading minuscule leads in the polls since the campaign kicked off in mid-September, with the Liberals favoured to win the most seats. Now, the CBC’s Poll Tracker, an aggregate of publicly available polling, projects the Conservatives could snatch 140 seats, compared to 135 for the Liberals. It’s still short of the 170-seat benchmark needed for a majority, but Scheer is capitalizing on the apparent movement.”: https://www.cbc.ca/news/
Question
Has anything changed, or are going to end up where we are headed?See you there! Bring a buddy.