We need to talk about Turkey. Not the food, though that would be nicer, tastier and a bit more ‘nigella’, but the country, the nation, the state. And what a state its in.

Turkey straddles two regions. It borders Europe to the west and the middle East on its eastern borders. Syria to be precise. And on that border there lives (and sadly dies too) the Kurds. Well some of them. Less than before but the rest of the Kurds are spread across parts of Iran, Iraq and then distributed, like Amazon products, across the rest of the world.

And the Turks hate the Kurds. Always have. Don’t ask me why, cos I don’t know. Its one of those ‘wrong kind of mulsim’ things that seem to be plaguing the world currently. So the Kurds want their own land in Eastern Turkey and the Turkish response is essentially a policy of killing them. And because that’s frowned upon by the sometimes overly-sensitive Western world, they now adopt a policy of ‘letting ISIS kill them for us’, which is why Turkey has never raised any issue, let alone its army, against the marauding jihadis lodged on its shores.

Because of its position, Turkey has always been an important place from a military strategic standpoint. The Americans keep planes there in case Iran (another Turkish neighbour) gets stroppy, and the Turks have maintained the stance of overtly being ‘the friend of the West’ and desperately wishing to become part of the European Union.

But now that strategic importance has been raised massively by the ‘migrant crisis’. Because Turkey is ‘ground zero’ for migrants. Its the last place they get to before entering Europe. Normally by boat to a Greek Island. Thus its fairly safe to assume that most of the people-transporters are Turks. Or at least have some kind of sanction by the Turks. Because we’re talking about millions of people. You’d have to have more than one ‘blind eye’ to turn to be ignorant of that.

So the Turkish Prime Minister (they are a democracy, though do have a history of opposition leaders ‘disappearing’ and although they are officially ‘secular’ there’s an ever-increasing shift towards Islamic laws) is in a fabulous position in which Europe needs him. Really needs him. To control the migrants. Which he is prepared to do, with just a few ‘conditions’.

Like 6 billion Euros to ‘help’ with migrant aid, refugee camps and the massive administration required. Fair enough. S’only money. Quite a lot, but only money. Then he wants an acceleration of Turkey’s acceptance to the EU. And THEN he wants almost unlimited access for Turkey’s 80 million inhabitants, to travel in and around Europe. And work there.

I like Turks. Some of my favourite kebab makers are Turkish. But do we potentially want to swap a million tragic Syrians for 78 million marauding Turks coming to Europe?

So big a worry I’m going to White Hart Lane to consider the Turks in their natural environment; Tottenham.

Happy Sunday (we hope and pray)

A xxxx