Inside the Asylum

A bit over a month ago I posted something about cabin stabbing and daggering in Jamaica. Ever since then the Asylum seems to have been getting a disproportionately large amount of its traffic as a result of hits from google searches for "cabin stabbing". OK, well, whatever turns you on people!

Apparently Biden's schedule is just packed with private meetings on unknown topics:

And we've wondered aloud how this Democratic VP's private meetings with unnamed people on unnamed subjects differs from the private meetings with unnamed people that his evil predecessor had that got so many Democratic senators and representatives worried about nefarious secrets.

Well, that's an easy one. When a Republican does it, it is an evil threat to all that we hold dear, but when a Democrat does the same thing, that's perfectly acceptable. Got it?

My previous post noting that Turkey wants the UN to discuss the violence in Xinjiang got me searching for a Turkish viewpoint on what's been going on. Here it is: First off, something I didn't know, but shouldn't have comes as a surprise.

Many Uighurs fleeing from Chinese oppression have taken refuge in Turkey over the years and that these refugees are in close touch with ultra-nationalist and Pan-Turkic groups capable of creating serious political unrest the country.

And then there's this:

Demonstrators earlier this week scuffled with police outside the Chinese embassy, and such public outpourings of sympathy can be expected to continue in the coming days and weeks depending on how the situation unfolds. Chinese brutality is of course well known around the world...

The government of Turkey called the Chinese Charge d’Affaires to the foreign ministry to ask for information about the events, but so far the Turkish government is playing a cautious game. It doesn't want to alienate China, but it's under serious domestic pressure to be more forceful on this issue. At the moment, the approach to the UN seems to be their idea of a careful middle course. In the past they've bowed to Chinese pressure and refused to issue a visa to Rabia Kader (who lives in the US), who China is seeking to blame for all the violence in their typical move of blaming "outside forces." If Turkey decides to reverse this policy and lets her visit, that will be a pretty clear signal that the Turks have decided to up the ante ... if they refuse a visa application again, then we'll know that they plan to continue on the cautious path. And that also leaves us with our new term of the week: "Pan-Turkic groups". I didn't know there were such things ... but again, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.

This is certainly thought provoking. An unnamed Kurdish official is quoted as saying:

"We have the right to be independent, but if that doesn’t work out, then I’d rather be with Turkey than Iraq."

There's also this:

"If the Shiites choose Iran, and the Sunnis choose the Arab world, then the Kurds will have to ally themselves with Turkey," the report quoted Fuad Hussein, chief of staff of Massoud Barzani, the leader of the regional administration in northern Iraq, as saying.

And even more intriguing, it hints at a resurgent Ottoman Empire ...

"These developments have revived the notion of 'Mosul vilayet,' Iraq’s old Mosul province to which post-Ottoman Turkey laid claim," noted the report, highlighting the point that "the impetus is coming not from Turkish nationalist circles but from the Kurdish side, even at senior levels."

If it ever happened, the Turks would have to make some pretty major concessions to the Kurds of course ... probably granting them some kind of semi-autonomous territory within Turkey. Still, kind of interesting ... and there's no reason why Turkey couldn't once again become a major regional power, particularly in Central Asia with the various Turkic nations there.

This is kind of interesting. Turkey, the western-most nation of the Turkic family of nations, has decided to enter the fray on behalf of their eastern-most compatriots.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said Turkey would ask the UN body to discuss ways of ending the violence in northwest China's Xinjiang region.

Naturally, China objects strongly, saying

This is purely China's internal affair.

Still, it does bring out the point that the Uighurs are not even slightly related to the Han Chinese either ethnically, religiously, or linguistically, and do have a close affinity with the various Central Asian republics stretching in a line to Turkey.

Obama talks a big game, but he lacks any kind of credibility to carry through. Here's what he has to say:
"Our premise is that we provide the door, but we also say we're not going to just wait indefinitely and allow for the development of the nuclear weapon, the breach of international treaties." The Iranian response? "yeah? well what are you going to do about it? Nar nar nar-nar na."