Turkey has achieved many successes in its fight against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorism. By getting rid of the terror elements in the Turkish Armed Forces and police forces after July 15, the course of the fight against terrorism has changed. Especially, the unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned combat air vehicles are clamping down on terrorists. With determination and coordination, the fight against terrorism has become this effective for the first time in history.
Will this effective fight alone be enough to end terrorism? No, it won’t. Unless we eradicate the root of terror, there is no end for the PKK. Today we see clearly that Europe is overtly supporting the PKK, and the U.S. is the protecting it. We also know that some other countries are also supporting the PKK, either overtly or covertly. If this support doesn’t comes to an end, if we don’t crack down on the funding, logistic, the sympathy they gained both locally and abroad, and their recruitment of terrorists, the PKK will not be completely defeated despite the most effective security measures.
We have witnessed three important developments of the PKK in recent months…
The first is the fact that PKK is blatantly holding itself back. This withhold is not entirely the result of our fight against terrorism. Of course, they are having a hard time as a result of our fight, but the PKK has a capacity for terror attacks, which they are clearly not using.
The second development is the fact that U.S. special representative for Syria and former Ankara and Baghdad Ambassador James Jeffrey interviewed with the al-Arabia on Nov.1 and stated, “The U.S. is restarting its efforts to arrive at some kind of solution between its two allies, Turkey and the Kurds.”
We witnessed the third development yesterday. The U.S. put a bounty on the founders and so-called senior leaders of the PKK, Murat Karayılan, Cemil Bayık and Duran Kalkan. These three “old barons,” whose ages are around 65, were discarded by the U.S.
These three developments demonstrate that the PKK is transforming now, or that it is being transformed.
We must underline that this is not a purge. It seems that the PKK is being redesigned according to the structure designed to be built in the north of Syria.
Obviously, the U.S. thinks that if they present the PKK as being eliminated, they can prevent objections that would come from Turkey.
Moreover, the U.S. also realized that with its existing structure and methods that the PKK is not only a problem for Turkey but also for the entire region. The U.S. thinks that terror barons who are living the last years of their lives and started to spoil the terrorist organization with their drug and prostitute addiction have completed their missions. They see that while there is already a structure in the north of Syria, they cannot carry an organization which spreads terror from the mountains.
The U.S. could not conceal the link between the PYD and PKK. They couldn’t hide this relation with the new names they gave to the PYD. Now, they will be able to do this on the global scale by transforming the PKK.
Is Turkey going to allow this transformation? Will this transformation remove Turkey’s objections against the structure in the north of Syria? So, will Jeffrey’s reconciliation claim become true?
Turkey-U.S. relations have entered a different stage after pastor Brunson returned home. Turkey’s waiver regarding the sanctions imposed on Iran is also an important “gesture”. The U.S. is also “keeping on the good side of Turkey” in Manbij.
The “good” relations of course don’t mean Turkey will allow a terrorist formation in the north of Syria. But it is still clear that tough days await Turkey.
On the one hand, there is the aim to finish the “Kurd State” project which was left incomplete in the Lausanne Treaty. On the other hand, there is Turkey’s great objection to the project. And there is also Russia’s silence from the beginning.
Will Turkey or the U.S. emerge victorious from this complex equation?
This is certain, a terrorist state which will be established north of Syria, even a formation, will upset the core of the balance of Turkey and that of the entire region Eventually, the design of the terror corridor from Iran to İskenderun will slowly create a new “Israel” syndrome in the region.
For the last 200 years, we have been experiencing that the West takes its time. They can make long-term plans and transfer them from one generation to another, from one government to the other. If we want to destroy the souls of the Armistice of Mudros, Treaty of Sevres, and the Treaty of Lausanne, if we want to put an end to these designs which have no end in our geography, we need to have long-term policies. Because the PKK will go, and another group will take its place. The names change, but the circle tightens. We need to see that the struggle is not “against some bandits” and we need to make for century-long plans, not for three or five years. We have this experience, we have this vision in abundance.
Aydın Ünal
