Turkey Uses ISIS as Excuse to Attack Kurds

[rangerrebew]

Turkey Uses ISIS as Excuse to Attack Kurds

 

Gatestone Institute - 27 July 2015 - From Uzay Bulut

Turkey Uses ISIS as Excuse to Attack Kurds
It appears as if the Turkish government is using ISIS as a pretext to attack the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party). Turkey just announced that its air base at Incirlik will soon be open to coalition forces, presumably to fight ISIS. But the moment Turkey started bombing, it targeted Kurdish positions in Iraq, in addition to targeting ISIS positions in Syria. In Turkey, millions of indigenous Kurds are continually terrorized and murdered, but ISIS terrorists can freely travel and use official border crossings to go to Syria and return to Turkey; they are even treated at Turkish hospitals.

    If this is how the states that rule over Kurds treat them, why is there even any question as to whether the Kurds should have their own self-government?

Turkey's government seems to be waging a new war against the Kurds, now struggling to get an internationally recognized political status in Syrian Kurdistan.

On July 24, Turkish media sources reported that Turkish jet fighters bombed Kurdish PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) bases in Qandil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria.

Turkey is evidently unsettled by the rapprochement the PKK seems to be establishing with the U.S. and Europe. Possibly alarmed by the PKK's victories against ISIS, as well as its strengthening international standing, Ankara, in addition to targeting ISIS positions in Syria, has been bombing the PKK positions in the Qandil mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, where the PKK headquarters are located.

There is no ISIS in Qandil.

As expected, many Turkish media outlets were more enthusiastic about the Turkish air force's bombing the Kurdish militia than about bombing ISIS. "The camps of the PKK," they excitedly reported, "have been covered with fire."

It appears as if Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is using ISIS as a pretext to attack the PKK. Ankara just announced that its air base at Incirlik will soon be open to coalition forces, presumably to fight ISIS, but the moment Turkey started bombing, it targeted Kurdish positions. Those attacks not only open a new era of death and destruction, but also bring an end to all possibilities of resolving Turkey's Kurdish issue non-violently.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced that (...more)

http://en.europenews.dk/Turkey-Uses-ISIS-as-Excuse-to-Attack-Kurds-120307.html

[alicewonders]

The minute I heard that Turkey was now going to "help us fight ISIS" - I knew that it would be Kurds that would be targeted instead.  What is the reason that we don't help train and arm the Kurds - like John McCain was so adamant that we do with the Syrian rebels? 

Even if the Kurds were to somehow get their own country, they would be under constant attack.  The world powers that be are not fighting ISIS - they are letting them do their dirty work - Obama!

[EC]

Been saying this for well over a year.

The first time I took a small break to "go visit" we were (officially) advised to treat any and all Turkish forces as hostile, without exception. Annoying on a personal level as I do have friends in their military, but that's the way it goes. 

Erdogan wants to be Suleiman. He dreams of it. ISIS is a tool for him to achieve that, so he thinks.

[Fishrrman]

[[ Erdogan wants to be Suleiman. He dreams of it. ISIS is a tool for him to achieve that, so he thinks. ]]

Will he end up being their "tool"...?

[EC]

I honestly couldn't tell you, my friend. 

ISIS is going to be unwilling to hit Turkey for a long time - at least the upper ranks who are, as always, in it for the power, not out of belief. Turkey buys their stolen oil and provides smuggling routes for weapons shipments that can't really be tampered with.

Turkey, at the moment, wants to deal with the Kurds in their more traditional genocidal manner and is quite happy to let ISIS do a lot of the heavy lifting in that respect.

In the longer term, they'll turn on each other violently since their goals are completely at odds, but for now expect hand in glove working together, with some pretense of deniability by the Turks.