NEWSDESK, — By arming Turkey to the teeth, the United States is indirectly inflicting violence against the stateless Kurds.
Turkey was already the largest importer of the United States arms, but the US Congress approved the sale of three AH-1 Super-Cobra attack helicopters to Turkey on Monday.
According to the Canadian scholar David Romano the author of Kurdish Nationalist Movements, “The United State alone has provided Turkey with infinitely more aid than any insurgent group could ever come close to attaining from foreign sources….The US-supplied attack helicopters, jets, tanks, and armoured personnel carriers have been used to destroy over 3,000 Kurdish villages. US- origin small arms have been used in the extra-judicial killing of suspected PKK members or sympathizers.”
A petition was launched urging the US Congress not to sale further arms to Turkey, not to further kill stateless Kurds, but the Congress didn’t hear the voices of thousands of pro-democracy people around the world.
The Obama administration had sent to US Congress on Oct. 28 the proposal to sell three AH-1 Super Cobra twin-engine attack helicopters to Turkey from the US Marine Corps inventory. According to US law, the administration needs to notify Congress of the sale of arms to other countries and seek authorization. If the proposed sale is to a NATO-member country, Congress has 15 days to reject the sale or it will be automatically authorized.
The process of securing Congressional approval for the sale of the $111-million helicopters to Turkey was swiftly done as no motion to block the sale was moved to Congress. The attack helicopters are to be delivered in a couple months after a technical screening.