Turkey is stepping up the war against the Kurds

Turkey is stepping up the war against the Kurds



In late July, put the turkey to finish the bombs against the terror group IS. But many believe that Turkey really wants to the Kurdish guerrilla PKK. - The Turkish government has given an excuse to attack the Kurds, says researcher Toni Alaranta.
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On August 1, bombed the city Zergele in Iraqi Kurdistan - the first Turkish air strikes on civilians in Iraq. Six civilians killed. Turkey's attacks on Kurdish areas can no longer be excused as attacks against terrorists, but air strikes against the Islamic state, the IS, is a pretext for the Turkish government to crack down on the PKK.

- The bombings have been almost entirely focused on the PKK and not against ICE, says Toni Alaranta, political scientists and Turkey expert at the Foreign Policy Institute.

It was on July 20 that Turkey's involvement in the civil war in Syria had a sudden turnaround.

In the Turkish city Suruc, near the Syrian border, had a number of aid workers gathered at the Cultural Center, which means the work to the bombed and earlier IS-controlled Syrian city Kobane coordinated. Among other things, hundreds of Turkish youths from socialist youth network SGDF are in place. At 12 o'clock in the morning, slamming it. A suicide bomber blows himself and thirty aid workers in the air.

- There are dead bodies all over the damn park, says the Swedish politician Evin Cetin (S), which was in place with two Swedish colleagues, shocked the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet shortly afterwards.

The terror organization's IS takes soon on the attack and protests breaking out in several locations in Turkey. The anger flaring up significantly when an article claiming links between the Turkish regime and IS spread. The article is considered recent lack substance but suspicions that the Turkish government had dealings with ICE holds. Toni Alaranta am convinced that the Turkish official was involved in the attack in Suruc.

- Some reports claim that the Turkish security police was involved, or at least had knowledge that an attack was planned. There are many reports of Turkish aid to Syrian rebels, including the IS. There are too many sources of it for it to go to ignore. This is so clearly the government involved in, nothing happens in Turkey but President Erdogan's permission.

In retaliation for the attack in Suruc PKK rebels kill two policemen in eastern Turkey. The PKK says that the policemen had connections to the IS. Shortly thereafter draws Turkey started its bombing of Kurdish areas in Syria and Iraq, and extensive raids carried out in Turkey - over 1 300 people suspected of terrorism arrested, 137 of them are linked to the IS, 847 to the PKK. The finish on the two-year ceasefire between Turkey and the PKK is a fact.

Ever since last year, the United States has asked Turkey for help in the fight against IS. But despite the fact that Turkey is one of America's most important allies in the region and a member of NATO, Turkey has until July this year, not allies in the fight against IS. But over the past month, the Kurdish YPG militia, trained by the PKK and has links to the organization and does not recognize an official cooperation, conquered the growing areas along the Turkish border in northern Syria. Something that is of concern for Turkey. For while much of the world sees the IS as the greatest threat in the region, sees Turkey the Kurds as the biggest threat. Kurds have long sought independence, no state of Turkey is strongly opposed. The bloody attack in Suruc gave Turkey the excuse they needed to strike minority.

In June, lost the presidential Erdogan party's absolute majority in parliament, this is mainly because of the pro-Kurdish party HDP's successes. Therefore, many people believe now that Erdogan's goal with the new war against the PKK is to whip up anti-Kurdish sentiments before the election which will most likely take place in the fall.

- Apparently, it's about the AKP want back the power and Erdogan, one-party rule, says Toni Alaranta.

- By creating a situation of chaos, Erdogan can say: look what happens if we allow a multiparty system, it is not possible to rely on the Kurdish parties, now we are surrounded by terrorism. Then all nationalists go back and vote for the AKP.

For the US, the situation is a difficult balance. The Kurdish groups in Syria has been working closely with the US forces, and together pressed back IS from areas they controlled. The Kurdish-Syrian militia YPG is America's most effective allies in Syria, but now America's other key ally, Turkey, while its enemy.

- The United States must cooperate with the Syrian Kurds, while they can not shift the NATO allies Turkey. It is really a very remarkable cooperation the United States has with these parties now, says Toni Alaranta.

That the armed conflict between the PKK and Turkey, since 1984, resulted in 40 000 deaths now flared up again is of course a disaster for the civilian population. Toni Alaranta also suspect that it will continue.

- Both parties know that an armed conflict is futile: the Turkish army learned during the 1900s that it is impossible to raw on a guerrilla movement and PKK learned that they can not get the Turkish government to collapse. The problem now is that Turkey tried creating a controlled chaos and once it is started, it was hard to stop.

Fence:
What is the PKK, YPG / YPJ and PYD?

Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK, founded in 1978 by, among others, Abdullah Ocalan. The organization fighting for Kurdish cultural and political rights in Turkey.

In 1984 the PKK, a guerrilla war against the Turkish Army's presence in Kurdistan and conducted a series of bomb and suicide attacks. 1997 and 2002 became the PKK, classed as a terrorist organization by the US and EU respectively. The recent ceasefire between Turkey and the PKK was declared unilaterally by the PKK 2013.

YPG means roughly People's Defense Front and is a Kurdish-Syrian militias. YPG was formed in 2004 by the PYD (Democratic Union Party) to protect Kurdish areas in the region and has become the terror organization Islamic state's biggest opponent. YPJ are female militia unit.

PYD, the Syrian-Kurdish Democratic Union Party, founded in 2003 by Kurdish militants in northern Syria and is therefore the militia's political wing. PYD has links to the Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK, in Turkey, but both PYD and YPG denies official links to the PKK.