The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since then.
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“Many people have this misunderstanding that they do [support ISIS], but their members are more tolerant toward ISIS because of their opposition to the PKK”, Kurt said. Turkish government said it was fighting IS, but said it’s preparing this stretch of land to be an IS-free area that will enable Turkey to return some 1.7 million Syrian refugees in Turkey to this safe, protected area, which means cutting the road before the Kurds can take them.
Meanwhile, Turkey has also started to crack down on the Islamic State extremist group.
Differences have emerged between Washington and Ankara over how to use a Turkish air base near the Syrian border in the fight against Islamic State militants.
Kurdish activists and government critics believe the government’s crackdown on the PKK is a tactic aimed at strengthening the ruling party ahead of possible new elections in November.
“These attacks on the PKK will have no success”. By deliberately stirring nationalist, anti-Kurdish sentiment, he is endangering the chance of a lasting settlement of the Kurdish question and weakening the fight against IS. The PKK claimed responsibility for the attack, accusing the murdered policemen of supporting ISIL.
As Syria plunged into civil war, the Kurdistan’s People’s Protection Unit (YPG), the armed wing of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), used the opportunity to gain control over Kobane in 2012 and declare autonomy over the region in northeast Syria. “He doesn’t care about peace”, he added. But there have been recent indications that Moscow may be more willing to talk, and the ties forged during the U.S.-Iranian nuclear talks could prove valuable. The vote saw Erdogan’s allies in parliament, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), lose its majority for the first time more than a decade.
“Turkey appears to be engaged in a strategy of hitting two birds with one stone by giving the impression of fighting ISIL while simultaneously starting operations against the PKK”, wrote Lale Kemal, a columnist for Zaman newspaper, using one of the acronyms of the Islamic State group. “Kurds are “terrorists” again”, he said.
“While we were deciding on measures (after the suicide bombing), this time the PKK came into play”, said Davutoglu.
The Turkish government has launched a major response aimed at ISIS and the PKK, conducting massive counterterrorism raids across the country, blocking websites, and banning and dispersing protests.
In cities like Adiyaman, on the frays of Turkey’s Kurdish territory, the absence of local Islamist groups has actually created a vacuum of alternatives to ISIS, allowing radicals from Syria to exploit the rising internal Kurdish political divisions and win over impressionable recruits, Jenkins, the Istanbul-based Turkey analyst, said. Ironically, Kurdish forces within Syria are actually the only effective US-aligned, anti-Isis force on the ground.
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“The worrying thing has always been the freedom of which groups such as ISIS and their supporters have been able to propagandize and recruit”, Jenkins said. Syria’s main Kurdish fighting force has links with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party which had been leading insurgency in Turkey with its extensive bases in northern Iraq. “They attack and kill innocent people in Turkey, and it’s a shame for Kurds”, he said. But its continued truncated existence between Damascus and the coast and in isolated spots elsewhere does not constitute an immediate danger for the Turkish leader.
