What higher day than Christmas to focus on Kurds in Syria because the western world tucks into turkey dinners and tunes out distress unfolding elsewhere throughout the globe? May which have been what Turkish army planners have been pondering once they unleashed an armed drone on a home filled with youth activists within the city of Kobani on Dec. 25, killing three younger ladies and two males?
The USA and European governments not often say something when Turkey selectively targets its perceived Kurdish enemies. However the assault on members of the Syrian Revolutionary Youth, or Ciwanen Soresger, as they’re recognized in Kurdish, marks a brand new stage of escalation in Turkey’s ongoing army marketing campaign in opposition to Kurdish teams linked to the US-supported autonomous administration in northeast Syria; one that’s squarely geared toward deepening divisions between the Kurds.
Mazlum Kobane, the commander in chief of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), condemned the attack in a sequence of tweets, calling on the United Nations “to cease the Turkish coverage of intimidation in opposition to civilians and to cease hostilities, which undermine stability efforts.”
The autonomous administration attracts its inspiration from Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed chief of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been combating the Turkish military since 1984, initially for independence and now for autonomy.
Lots of the administration’s senior cadres are drawn from the PKK. The Revolutionary Youth is tasked with spreading Ocalan’s ideology and drawing recruits to his motion, very similar to its sister organizations in Turkey. However its members have additionally been linked to acts of vandalism in opposition to the opposition Kurdish Nationwide Council (KNC) and different disruptive actions together with intimidating journalists as documented by Syrians for Truth and Justice, an unbiased group monitoring rights abuses in Syria.
Turkey claims they’re “all PKK” which is designated as a terrorist group by the US and the EU. Turkey has justified its persevering with army assaults, together with three large-scale invasions in opposition to the Syrian Kurdish administration on these grounds.
Now, by choosing on the Syrian Revolutionary Youth, Turkey could also be hoping to use rising tensions between the autonomous administration and the Kurdistan Regional Authorities (KRG) in neighboring Iraq, which it helped to sow by way of its continued assaults in opposition to the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan. On the identical time, Turkey has been searching for to foment distrust between Kobane and the PKK, with pro-government Turkish media spreading unfounded rumors that he’d been changed because the SDF commander in chief. Turkey’s continued concentrating on of the city of Kobani, the place the US-SDF army alliance in opposition to the Islamic State was born and the place the SDF commander is from, carries further symbolism, showcasing Ankara’s capacity to assemble intelligence there.
The demonstration turned violent when, by Muslim’s account, KRG safety officers on the border started pelting the youths with rocks and firing tear fuel. The youths threw the rocks again and chanted slogans in opposition to the Kurdistan Democratic Social gathering of Iraq, which dominates the KRG and is carefully allied with Ankara. KRG officers talking off the document gave a unique account, saying the youths instigated the violence. A video revealed by the pro-PYD ANHA company exhibits masked youths throwing rocks on the KRG facet, but it surely’s unclear who flung them first.
Both means, the KRG’s response was inexplicably disproportionate. It shut Fish Khabur and the one different crossing from Iraq to Syria, the close by al-Walid, which carries most industrial site visitors to northeast Syria.
Washington was pressured to intervene. A senior US official referred to as the KRG prime minister, Masrour Barzani, final week. Some 38 vans carrying humanitarian support have been allowed to cross from Iraqi Kurdistan into northeast Syria following that decision. However the ban on all site visitors, save for vans carrying provides to coalition forces in northeast Syria, stays in place. It’s unclear when or on what phrases the KRG will re-open the border. A KRG spokesman had not responded to Al-Monitor’s request for remark as of publication time.
A State Division spokesman informed Al-Monitor, “We’ve heard the reviews of a drone strike close to Kobani on Dec. 25. We proceed to urge all sides to de-escalate.”
As for the border crossing closures, the spokesman added, “We name on authorities to permit and facilitate protected, well timed and unhindered humanitarian entry for all these in want.”
The closure might hurt the humanitarian operation in Northeast Syria aiding 1.8 million folks, the UN said in a statement. Western diplomats are privately livid on the KRG’s stance, which compounds the prevailing restrictions on support to Syria attributable to Russia’s and China’s continued stonewalling on the UN Safety Council.
The KRG had sealed Fishkhabur quickly after the PYD declared the autonomous administration in 2012. This was partly attributable to strain from Turkey but in addition due to the KDP’s historic aversion to Ocalan and the PKK and its conviction that the majority Syrian Kurds are pure followers of the KDP’s founder, the late Mullah Mustafa Barzani.
US mediation amid the Islamic State’s rampage throughout Iraq and Syria saved the day, all greased by backdoor offers which noticed the autonomous administration promote oil produced in its area (that’s most of Syria’s oil) at all-time low costs to the KRG.
The return to the established order ante chimes with Ankara’s technique of conserving the KRG and the PYD at loggerheads and the Syrian Kurdish enclave remoted and below most strain.
