Turkey is shelling Kurdish forces across the border in northern Syria. As Kurdish forces move forward, village after village is falling under the control of these Kurdish forces as they are trying to gain access to Azaz, Syria and to the surrounding areas, which are very important to Turkey. Turkey does not want the Kurds to have access to the Mediterranean corridor just as it does not want the Kurds to have an independent Kurdish canton as its neighbor like Kurdistan in Northern Iraq. Turkey has long insisted that Syria’s Kurds pose a greater threat to its security than ISIS and is upset that the United States is helping the Kurds. Therefore, Turkey wants to portray the Kurds in Syria as a terror group and as a threat to the US and to the international coalition, characterizing their territory as a place where they also can act against the Islamic State group. However, the Kurds never killed any Turks, and for decades the Kurds in Syria have lived in their homeland without citizenship. The Kurds in Syria could not work, could not travel, and could not get the proper jobs because they did not have any proper documents or citizenships. The Kurds have been oppressed by the regime for decades, so this is a great opportunity for them to get their freedom. Kurds are like any other nation in that they would like to live in their homeland free and equal. No one has a right to take away God-given right from the Kurds. The sadness of the situation is compounded in that the Kurds are being very oppressed by the Muslim nations, especially Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. The leaders of those nations consider themselves to be an Islamic governments, every day issuing statements about Islam’s being a religion of justice, peace, and equality, but in the meantime taking God-given rights from the Kurds.
Turkey is using the strategy of good Kurds and bad Kurds all the while continuing to oppress the Kurdish people. Turkey views the YPG, the military wing of the Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD), as allied to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has carried about a decade-long armed campaign in Turkish territory. Turkey, the US, and the EU list the PKK as a terrorist organization. But the United States does not consider the YPG and the PYD as terror groups, but instead perceives them as the only effective force against ISIS on the ground in Syria. Kurdish groups now control most of the Syrian border with Turkey. If the Kurds take over the town of Azaz, they could join the land gap between other Kurdish towns such as Kobane to the west, so that the Syrian rebel groups would not have an entry point into the area controlled by the Assad regime. That is why Russia is supporting the Kurds to control the border area and to prevent the Turks from getting into Aleppo. Turkey does not want Russia and Iran designing Syria in the aftermath. Turkey is even considering a land operation with Saudi Arabia or getting involved unilaterally in the Syrian war for the sake of not letting the Kurds take over Azaz.
The war in Syria is a proxy war, and the United States under the Obama administration does not want to drag America into the Syrian war. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf countries are seriously trying to persuade the US to agree on a safe zone for displaced Syrians and hope to get the support of the European Union, which has been facing an overwhelming refugee crisis. Turkey is wrong about its Kurdish policy in Syria because the Kurds are not a threat to Turkey. Instead the situation is an opportunity for Turkey, because the area could be like the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Northern Iraq with which Turkey has very good relations. It is not good for Turkey to lose Syrian Kurds to the Russian regime. Turkey is hoping and praying for a Republican to win the US elections to get rid of Assad and to face Russia. It is true that the PYD has been accused of collaborating with the Bashar Assad regime on many occasions, but this does not mean that PYD is a terror group or is one willing to kill all non-Kurdish people in the region.
Turkey’s policy toward the Kurds in Syria is wrong and irrational. Turkey is trying to declare the Kurds in Syria as terrorists for its national interests, and this is not morally or humanely acceptable. Turkey is competing with Iran‘s Shiite religion to become the leader of the region, using the Sunni Islamic card. None of the international superpowers like Russia, the US, Turkey, or the other countries are seriously fighting against ISIS. The only resistance to ISIS remains at the hands of the Kurdish forces that are very close to the PKK fighting in Turkey. The main objectives for Turkey are to prevent the establishment of an autonomous Kurdish region in Northern Syria and to remove the Assad established regime’s influence close to Turkey.
Turkey does not want Kurds to have power. Turkey is using the refuges as a card to pressure the West, and it is succeeding. The recent Ankara bombing has nothing to do with the Kurds in Syria, but Ankara hastened to conclude and is trying to convince the West that the Kurds in Syria are terrorists and that the suicide bombers were Kurdish. Russia is trying to help the Assad regime to keep its naval base on the Mediterranean. If the Assad regime is gone, that means the end of the Russian presence in the Mediterranean. Because of the failure of the US policy in the Middle East, Russia is running the show. During the last three years, Russia has intervened militarily in Georgia, Ukraine, and now Syria because of lack of global leadership. No one dares to stand against Russia. Europe resigned from its principles a long time ago and is on the verge of collapse; NATO is losing its effectiveness; the United Nations has become an ineffective club because world peace depends on the votes of five countries, even though our world is bigger than five nations. The world system is on the verge of collapse and needs to be redesigned.
Iran acts as an ally of the Assad regime and Russia in Syria to keep the Shia type administration in Syria and to prevent the Sunni domination of the Middle East. Today the situation that preoccupies Washington seems to be the Turkish bombing of Kurdish towns in Syria. America does not want to take risk losing Turkey, a NATO member, or control of the Incirlic NATO base in Turkey that is vital to the American presence in the Middle East.
The Turkish government hastily announced that the Syrian Kurdish PYD was behind the Ankara bombing that killed 28 people, but the head of the PYD denied that his group carried out the attack in Ankara. However, Turkish President Erdogan rejected the PYD’s denial of responsibility. The Kurdish people in Syria and Iraq could potentially help bring about a power-sharing agreement. The Kurds are one of the largest ethnic groups in the Middle East, making up 20 percent of the total Turkish population and 10 percent of the total population in Iran and Syria. Long-term stability in the Middle East, especially in Iran, Turkey, Syria, and Iraq is impossible without addressing Kurdish demands, which would include creating systems more open to minority power-sharing. The autonomous cantons under the control of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which it views as a model for the future, would provide a decentralized system of federal governance in Syria. The Kurds in Syria hope that America will protect democratic confederalism under these Kurds and remain part of Syria but at the same time allow local communities to rule over and protect themselves.
It is important that Turkey solve the Kurdish problem in Turkey and recognize the Kurdish reality across its border, and without this acquiescence to the Kurds, the reality is that peace will never come to the Middle East and to Turkey. Turkey‘s relation with the Kurds in Iraq shows how mutually beneficial for the Kurds and the Turks this cooperation would be, and that the Kurds are not a threat to Turkey. Turkey once considered the Kurds in Northern Iraq as a threat to its national security. Kurds are not a threat to their neighbors’ national security; in fact, they can serve as peacemakers in Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran to help strengthen existing democratic institutions, so that Kurdish parties will have less incentive to ask for independence, because the failure to address the Kurdish problem is likely to lead to more Kurds breaking away from the authoritarian rule over them.
Dr. Aland Mizell is President of the MCI and a regular contributor to Mindanao Times. You may email the author at:aland_mizell2@hotmail.com