Legacy of Reagan, Bush and Clinton

Here's a quote from a recent article, citation below:

"The U.S. government first began giving military aid to Turkey in 1946 to counter Soviet influence in the Middle East during the post-WWII era. But substantial support really began after a military coup in 1980 (an article in the Economist at the time said the armed forces “acted as they had to”) when the U.S. signed a military agreement with Turkey. The U.S. agreed to help modernize Turkish armed forces in exchange for the use of Turkey’s military bases, which bordered Iran and the USSR. After the coup, the situation of the Kurds worsened, as the military gained greater influence and a civil state of emergency was declared in the Southeast in 1987. The civil war between the Turkish armed forces and the PKK that began in 1984 and ended in 1999, left about 37,000 dead, 3,000 Kurdish villages destroyed, and possibly 2 million Kurds displaced. The United States funded 80 percent of Turkey’s arms during these years."

Source: Kuras, E. (2007, January). Kurds in Turkey: Still fighting for freedom. Z Magazine, 20(1). Retrieved January 10, 2007, from http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Jan2007/kuras0107.html