Turkey has been warning all the concerned parties in Iraq and Syria over the past year that it will not tolerate the presence of PKK secessionist terrorists at its border areas.
So what have those concerned parties done? Practically nothing.
On the contrary, the PKK, which was holed up in the Qandil Mountains of Iraq, has spread through the region and taken over the northwestern province of Sinjar under the pretense of fighting Daesh militants. The Iraqi government has said the PKK should vacate Sinjar. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), led by Massoud Barzani, said the PKK is unwanted in Sinjar and tried to threaten the PKK with force but they have remained defiant. Even the Americans who normally side with the Kurdish militants said the PKK should withdraw from Sinjar.
Despite all the rhetoric the PKK still remains in Sinjar and has gradually set up base there, which is a direct threat to Turkey.
As if this was not enough, the PKK has been allowed to venture into places like Kirkuk.
In Syria, the PKK has found ample room to flourish under the disguise of the Kurdish terrorist Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed wing the People’s Protection Units (YPG). The Americans who could not openly cooperate with the PKK in Iraq have used the PYD and YPG to make it possible to cooperate with the terrorists in Syria. They have simply used the terrorists to fight other terrorists: Daesh. In the process the Americans have provided military training as well as heavy weapons to the Kurdish militants.Turkey vehemently objected to this and yet the Americans have simply turned a deaf ear and continued to support the PKK affiliates.
So in the end Turkey once again took matters into its own hands. Turkish jet fighters hit the PKK in Sinjar dealing a blow to the terrorists. At the same time, Turkey attacked the PKK-YPG positions in northeastern Syria. Turkey had information that PKK and YPG militants from Rojova were involved in a series of terrorist incidents inside Turkey recently.
Instead of telling the PYD to move its militants away from the Turkish border areas, the Americans are actually voicing dismay over the Turkish airstrikes. The Americans should have told the YPG and the PKK not to put up command centers, arms depots and other installations next to our border areas. They should have told them to behave themselves in the Afrin region and in Rojova, both areas in northern Syria occupied by the PKK-YPG-PYD.
Instead of behaving themselves, YPG militants have fired anti-tank missiles into Turkish military outposts in our southern border province of Hatay from Afrin. As if this was not enough, YPG militants fired anti-tank missiles into our border outposts in Akdoğan and Karatepe in the southeastern border province of Mardin near Kızıltepe.
These attacks are an open act of defiance. The militants are clearly feeling they have American backing. In fact they are using anti-tank missiles supplied by the U.S.
It is time the Americans woke up to the realities of our region and looked at the picture from a long-term perspective. They will see clearly that allowing these threats to prevail on Turkey’s borders is counter-productive.
Daesh was as defiant as the PKK and the YPG and now they have been pushed deep into Syria by our army with the help of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). This should be a stark reminder for everyone of what may be in store for the PKK and the YPG in the near future
