JOY FEELINGS MAGAZINE December 2015 | Page 173

able to bear its share of the burden in the biggest global refugee crisis since World War II. ... THE TROUBLE WITH TURKEY: ERDOGAN, ISIS, AND THE KURDS BY MICHAEL J. TOTTEN Turkey, a key member of NATO, has so far chosen to sit out the war against ISIS. Instead, it is at war with Kurdish militias in Syria, the only ground forces so far that have managed to take on ISIS and win. Turkey fears and loathes Kurdish independence anywhere in the world more than it fears and loathes anything else. Kurdish independence in Syria, from Ankara’s point of view, could at a minimum escalate a threedecades-long conflict and at JOY FEELINGS | DECEMBER ISSUE 173