NewsTracker Answers for week of July 27, 2015

Q: Turkey launched its first air strikes against Islamic State forces in Syria last week, but it also attacked Kurdish camps in Iraq. The Kurds have conducted some of the most aggressive and effective fighting against the Islamic State radical fundamentalists in Iraq. Where is Iraq?

Circle the area on this map


Q: The Kurds  are an ethnic group with their own language and customs. They represent about 20 percent of the populations of both Iraq and Turkey. Turkey is . . .

A. North of Iraq

B. West of Iraq

C. South of Iraq

D. East of Iraq


A. Iraq borders Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Kuwait to the southeast, Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan to the southwest, and Syria to the west. The Turkish jets bombed the camps of the PKK, a Kurdish militant group that has fought three decades for independence for Turkey's 15 million Kurds.


Q: Turkey, Iraq and Iran each agreed to oppose the creation of an independent Kurdistan after the breakup of what Turkish empire which once ruled most of the Mideast, North Africa and Southeast Europe?

A. Armenian

B. Byzantine

C. Ottoman

D. Druze


C. The Ottoman Empire was dissolved at the end of World War I, nearly 100 years ago. In carving up the Mideast, Europe's WWI victors ignored the Kurds' desire for their own country. With nearly 25 million people living in five countries, the Kurds have been called the largest stateless minority group in the world.


Q: Turkey was long a reluctant member of the coalition against Islamic State, a stance that annoyed U.S. officials. Turkey and the United States are both members of what military alliance?

A. Axis

B. NATO

C. SEATO

D. Warsaw Pact


B. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is made up of 28 member states which agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party.  While U.S. officials defended Turkey's right to attack the PKK, the United States also has supplied weapons to the peshmerga, an Iraqi Kurdish militia repelling the Islamic State onslaught.


Q: Most Kurds are members of the largest Muslim sect . . .

A. Shia

B. Sufi

C. Sunni


C. Sunni Muslims make up the vast majority of Kurds, but there is a sizable Shiite population, particularly in Iran.