By Brett Daniel Shehadey
Special Contributor for In Homeland Security
The Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) has been rioting over Turkey’s decision to refuse military support against the Islamic State assault in the besieged city of Kobane, Syria, located near the border.
After what seemed like a promising turn of military cooperation from Turkey and the U.S.-led coalition forces, that allowed use of its bases, Ankara repeatedly bombed some Kurd positions in its border. Turkey claimed the Dağlıca military posts were attacked by Kurds using small arms and rocket-propelled grenades over the past few days. Armed clashes were reported elsewhere in Turkey as well.
On Monday, Turkey denied it entered into any “new agreement” with the U.S.-led coalition in the use of its bases to fight the Islamic State, while at the same time demanding the coalition target Syria’s President. This denial came after U.S. officials hailed the agreement. Turkey is still holding out for a better deal.
It is easy to see why the Turkish government rushed to assert and enforce their authority against a perceived incoming threat by what it labels a transnational terrorist group. Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned PKK leader warned that if Kobane fell to the Islamic State, the cease-fire between the PKK and the government would be “as good as dead.” While not a threat, it would mean a renewal of hostilities.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last week that, “For Turkey, the PKK and ISIS are the same…We need to deal with them jointly.”
That statement says it all: Turkey is not in touch with reality. Old policy still dictates the decision making process.
Ankara’s recent bad decision to attack the PKK at this time will have a world of self-inflicted consequences at a time when there are more pressing matters than Turkey now realizes. Pacifying the PKK ‘enemy’ would have been easier than fighting it. The Islamic State will never accept Ankara’s existence and will one day threaten to destroy it if allowed to grow. The Kurds would have tolerated Ankara’s government. Now the entire Kurdish universe will take the Turkish attack as a second betrayal to their people. The first was refusing to attack the worst terrorists in the world (i.e., the Islamic State) and instead to stand-by along the border to aim tanks at the Kurds. Their fear at the time was that the Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Unity (YPG) were a greater threat. That fear is playing out into the Islamic State’s hands.
Sure, Turkey has helped out almost 200,000 fleeing Kurds seek refuge in Turkey since the attack on Kobane, in accordance with international law, but the Kurds and everyone watching will react to Turkey’s limited national political position: they would rather bomb the radical Kurds in turkey than the Islamic State to prevent a massacre. Sure, they say they are the same, they have taken some military action to secure their interests.
On a German news channel last Friday, a senior PKK commander named Cemil Bayik said, “Because Turkey has continued to pursue its policies without any changes, we have sent back all our fighters that were pulled out of Turkey.”
After decades of violent conflict between the Turkish government and the Kurds left 40,000 dead, a renewal of civil strife seems inevitable. The Kurds seek greater autonomy and nationhood in parts of Turkey, Iraq and Syria. The PKK entered into a shaky cease-fire agreement with Ankara two years ago.
Why is Ankara failing to move against the Islamic State? They want to manipulate U.S.-led coalition strategy in Syria to counter the Islamic State by redirecting the mission objective to include the removal of Bashar al Assad. They are holding-out for the coalition to handle the Islamic State threat for them; meanwhile, they really want to focus training Syrian rebels to fight in the Civil War. They are wrestling the negotiation process with these objectives while Kobane men, women and children hang in the balance.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said, “Turkey will not embark on an adventure at the insistence of some countries unless the international community does what is necessary and introduces an integrated strategy.”
This “integrated strategy” is to attack Syrian President Bashar al Assad. Ankara would rather see a humanitarian disaster in Kobane and root out any PKK radicals if it does not get cooperation in undermining the Assad regime.
“The Assad regime should be the target for a real solution in Syria,” said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. They have also demanded a no-fly zone in the negotiation process.
But even if including President Assad’s regime was agreed to by the “international community,” which would be extremely difficult, due to prior assurances, Russia and Iran in the mix, or the complications of international law, Turkey has proven a stubborn an untrusting ally at this part of the game. It also seems that Ankara will now spend most of their time fighting the Kurds rather than protecting them. Their latest course of action contradicts the American military mission as well as its humanitarian commitments.
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