Time of the month for me to get my serious hat on. It's all conjecture and supposition at this stage but I read today that Turkey are ...
Time of the month for me to get my serious hat on.
It's all conjecture and supposition at this stage but I read today that Turkey are one of the countries bidding to host the 2022 Ryder Cup and if there's one thing we know by now it's that the Ryder Cup goes where the money is.
The headline might seem a bit sensational; to think that ISIS terrorists could threaten a golf tournament held in Turkey, but the simple fact is it would be a very very easy target. It's also crappy timing, coming in the week where another US journalist was killed barbarically and the video thrown to the hounds of social media.
Turkey is a vast country and though its geography wouldn't be high on the priorities of us here in Western Europe or maybe you reading in the USA, so let me fill you in. Turkey not only borders Syria, but does so for a 900 kilometre stretch, most of which is about as porous as the ropes of a boxing ring.
Every day dribs and drabs of fresh recruits, from France and England mostly, travel into Syria openly via small Turkish border towns on their way to join the jihadis of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham [or Syria] better known to us all now by the abbreviation ISIS. There's even a growing number of Turks being recruited by the Islamic fundamentalist organization; so much so that the US is currently putting the squeeze on Turkey to tighten up their border controls.
It used be all very well for Turkey to have a group of 'dormant' jihadi's spitting insults but still sitting 30 miles the other side of a border. Not any more now that they have woken.
For Turkey to even entertain hosting a Ryder Cup a hell of a lot of politicking would need to be done. Not only does ISIS pose a direct threat to the tournament, it also is a serious headache for Turkey's interests generally. Just one of the ISIS stunts already this year was to swoop and grab about 50 Turkish diplomats to keep hostage and use for for leverage. To think that that could happen so easily is a pretty serious problem. Last year a massive car bomb went off in one of the border towns killing over 50 people; Turkey officially blamed the Assad government but everybody really knew it was ISIS.
Look, this could all come and go by 2022, that's eight years from now. But the problem has been growing for well over eight years now and my guess is it will get a lot worse before it gets better.
Turkey may be a great host country for the 2022 Ryder Cup, but if it does there will be a lot more to it than meets the eye.
I promise not to get serious again for another month at least!
Join the GolfCentralDaily community on Twitter for loads more comment on and off the course. Follow @golfcentraldoc
It's all conjecture and supposition at this stage but I read today that Turkey are one of the countries bidding to host the 2022 Ryder Cup and if there's one thing we know by now it's that the Ryder Cup goes where the money is.
The headline might seem a bit sensational; to think that ISIS terrorists could threaten a golf tournament held in Turkey, but the simple fact is it would be a very very easy target. It's also crappy timing, coming in the week where another US journalist was killed barbarically and the video thrown to the hounds of social media.
Turkey is a vast country and though its geography wouldn't be high on the priorities of us here in Western Europe or maybe you reading in the USA, so let me fill you in. Turkey not only borders Syria, but does so for a 900 kilometre stretch, most of which is about as porous as the ropes of a boxing ring.
Every day dribs and drabs of fresh recruits, from France and England mostly, travel into Syria openly via small Turkish border towns on their way to join the jihadis of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham [or Syria] better known to us all now by the abbreviation ISIS. There's even a growing number of Turks being recruited by the Islamic fundamentalist organization; so much so that the US is currently putting the squeeze on Turkey to tighten up their border controls.
It used be all very well for Turkey to have a group of 'dormant' jihadi's spitting insults but still sitting 30 miles the other side of a border. Not any more now that they have woken.
For Turkey to even entertain hosting a Ryder Cup a hell of a lot of politicking would need to be done. Not only does ISIS pose a direct threat to the tournament, it also is a serious headache for Turkey's interests generally. Just one of the ISIS stunts already this year was to swoop and grab about 50 Turkish diplomats to keep hostage and use for for leverage. To think that that could happen so easily is a pretty serious problem. Last year a massive car bomb went off in one of the border towns killing over 50 people; Turkey officially blamed the Assad government but everybody really knew it was ISIS.
Look, this could all come and go by 2022, that's eight years from now. But the problem has been growing for well over eight years now and my guess is it will get a lot worse before it gets better.
I promise not to get serious again for another month at least!
Join the GolfCentralDaily community on Twitter for loads more comment on and off the course. Follow @golfcentraldoc
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