By SpenglerWhy Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan chose the year 2038 as the point at which his country will cease to exist, I do not know, but that's what he's been saying in stump speeches to his home audience, as I report in my new book, How Civilizations Die. He can't be too far off. A generation from now, Turkey will cease to exist in its present form. The ratio of Turks to Kurds today (defined by cradle tongue) is about 4:1, but Turks have 1.5 children on average, while Kurds have 4.5. In little over a generation, Kurds will comprise half the military-age population of Anatolia. After decades of civil war and 40,000 casualties, Turkey's Kurdish problem is as vivid as ever.
| As Spengler points out in this Pajamas Media blog post, Ahmadinejad's Iran has the same demographic problem...and Erdogan comes from a djinn-infested peasant background, not exactly a hotbed of logical thought. |