“It’s alienating the Kurds who are actively fighting on the ground in Iraq and Syria”, says Braniff.
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Erdogan called for closer cooperation against xenophobia, discrimination and Islamophobia.
“Erdogan wants to take revenge out on the People’s Democratic Party for their results in the elections”.
The PYD leader said that the massacre at Suruç, which killed 31 socialists on July 20, was carried out against Kobanê and sent a message of mass killing against those supporting and standing with Kobanê.
The report comes against the backdrop of airstrikes conducted by the Turkish military against targets controlled by Takfiri ISIL terrorists inside Syria as well as the positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.
“Erdogan’s visit is a good opportunity to make clear each nation’s concerns, especially when Turkey has been looking east for greater cooperation opportunities”, Wu said.
The U.S. has said Turkey has a right to defend itself against the PKK, which Washington, like Turkey, considers a terrorist group.
But Turkey’s assaults on the PKK have so far been much heavier than its strikes against Islamic State, fuelling suspicions that its real agenda is keeping Kurdish political and territorial ambitions in check, something the government denies. Furthermore, by attacking Kurds in Syria and Iraq, Turkey would be weakening the only force that has successfully fought against ISIS.
The civil war in Syria has already made a mockery of the state borders between the Kurdish areas of Iraq and Syria. “Jarablus is the only obstacle for this unity”, Demirtas said, referring to a Syrian town on the edge of the proposed “safe zone”.
Instantly, Erdogan permitted U.S. planes at Incirlik to attack ISIS targets in Syria and launched air strikes himself.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Kurdish rebels raided a Turkish police station and fired on railway workers in two separate attacks that left five dead, officials said Friday, amid renewed conflict between the security forces and insurgents that has wrecked a fragile peace process.
At least 15 members of the security forces according to an AFP tally have been killed in attacks blamed on the PKK since the current crisis erupted last week.
“We know all too well that the tens of thousands killed in Turkey in the 30 years of war won’t be forgotten so quickly”.
“We have lived together for years, Turks and Kurds”, said the 55-year-old, urging Ankara and the PKK at this tense time to “once again show the young people the road to peace”. The current violence has ripped apart a ceasefire declared in 2013. He said, “What Turkey implies to Kurds is that ‘Either you lay down arms or I will sic ISIS on you.’ Turkey has put this policy into practice with a massacre in Suruç”.
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Since then, the Western press has been full of adulation for Turkey, claiming that it has finally overcome its reluctance to act against the Islamic State, realized that ISIS has to be dealt with, and has joined forces with the U.S.in the fight against extremism.
