Originally Posted by Norm_uk

Forgive me if I don't agree with your sentiments on Turkey - a country founded on wiping out or assimilating the native mostly Greek, Armenian and Kurdish Anatolians by invaders from the Asian Steppes a few centuries ago.

Aside from the continued oppression of the Kurds (over 40,000 dead since 1990), the continued occupation of Cyprus and their state holocaust denial of the Armenian and Greek genocides...they are officially the number one jailer of journalists worldwide (more than Iran or China, net not per capita!). Modern Turkey sits on two thirds of historical Armenia and a huge chunk of Kurdistan and they refuse to discuss this. Until recently Kurds were not allowed to speak their language in the media or have Kurdish names - always makes me laugh when they have the gall to condemn Israel really...the tar pit calling the kettle black methinks.

"Who, after all, speaks to-day of the annihilation of the Armenians?" - Adolf Hitler in a speech to his commanders on August 22, 1939, discussing the "Jewish problem"(Mein Kampf is a best seller in Turkey incidentally http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4361733.stm).

I like how they changed one of the largest Churches in the world into a mosque, renamed one of the most ancient Roman cities (which to the eternal shame of the West we did not attempt to recapture) and then proceeded to capture young boys, convert them and press them into armies to fight against Europeans...bunch of charmers. Their proxies, the Barbary Pirates enslaved over 1million Europeans before finally being smashed by the newly formed US Navy (The Shores of Tripoli is still sung by the US Marines to this day).

Oh, and the main reason Columbus went west looking for China is because the Turks closed the Silk Road to Europe in an attempt to sanction us for not being good sports and opposing every army they sent into to conquer us.

Nope - Turkey is on my list of bastard states the world can do without, quite near the top. Send them all back to Turkmenistan where they belong.

Rant over - next state to dissect please

N.

Originally Posted by Boomhauer

Let it all out Norm,.....

From my reading on the subject, modern Turks are essentially the pre-Turkic people of the region. They underwent language shift. There is a tiny bit of East Asian specific male markers, which must be a remanant of the original Oghuz Turks who came from what is present day Mongolia.

Don't even know how Turkey ended up being in Nato. Atleast they aren't part of the EU....yet! European elites are acting mysteriously for working towards acceptance of Turkey into the EU, the vast majority of the country isn't even in Europe.

Originally Posted by Oyibopeppeh

Indeed.

The facts clearly show that as late as March 1938, while the Wehrmacht was busy marching into the Sudentenland, a pre-emptive strike into Germany by the French and the BEF would have nipped it in the bud.