Turkey’s power play

SYRIA: Turkey is now home to nearly 4 million Syrian refugees. That’s like setting down sprawling Los Angeles in a more densely populated Texas. But that didn’t stop Turkey from launching an offensive into Syria two months ago, something that represents a land grab and mass expulsion of Christians, Kurds, and Yazidis. In the latest issue of WORLD Magazine, I report on how a migrant deal with the European Union is giving Turkey inordinate power over the West.

AFGHANISTAN: Just hours after the Taliban announced its spring offensive with “U.S. forces in Afghanistan … the primary target of operations,” the State Department issued a call for Taliban militants to lay down their arms and join Afghanistan’s election process: “They should turn their bullets and bombs into ballots. They should run for office. They should vote.”

WEST AFRICA: European milk is pouring into Africa, with disastrous effects for local herders and farmers. While European dairies say they must export to survive, driving out local dairy farmers actually may be aggravating the security situation in the Sahel. “The sons of pastoralists become jihadists—not out of conviction but because there are no jobs,” said the president of Burkina Faso milk producers.

SUDAN: A local official is determined to dismantle one of the largest camps in Darfur, at Kalma, with an estimated population of 150,000. One expert said it represents “unfathomable barbarism” after attacks on the same population over the past decade led to genocide.

PERU: Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of more than 140 children on the northern coast in what appears to have been the largest instance of mass child sacrifice in the Americas—if not the entire world.

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