Turkey's government seems to be waging a new war against the Kurds, now struggling to get an internationally recognized political status in Syrian Kurdistan.

On July 24, Turkish media sources reported that Turkish jet fighters bombed Kurdish PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) bases in Qandil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria.

Turkey is evidently unsettled by the rapprochement the PKK seems to be establishing with the U.S. and Europe. Possibly alarmed by the PKK's victories against ISIS, as well as its strengthening international standing, Ankara, in addition to targeting ISIS positions in Syria, has been bombing the PKK positions in the Qandil mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, where the PKK headquarters are located.

There is no ISIS in Qandil.

As expected, many Turkish media outlets were more enthusiastic about the Turkish air force's bombing the Kurdish militia than about bombing ISIS. "The camps of the PKK," they excitedly reported, "have been covered with fire."

It appears as if Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is using ISIS as a pretext to attack the PKK. Ankara just announced that its air base at Incirlik will soon be open to coalition forces, presumably to fight ISIS, but the moment Turkey started bombing, it targeted Kurdish positions. Those attacks not only open a new era of death and destruction, but also bring an end to all possibilities of resolving Turkey's Kurdish issue non-violently.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced that:

"a second wave operation against Daesh [ISIS] in Syria was started. Just after that, a very comprehensive operation was carried out against the camps of the terrorist organization PKK in northern Iraq. I am glad that the targets were hit with great success. We have given instructions to start a third wave operation in Syria and a second wave operation in Iraq."

The "great success" of the Turkish military has brought much damage and injury to even Kurdish civilians -- including children. The Kurdish newspaper Rudaw reported that two Kurdish villagers in Duhok's Berwari region were carried to hospital in the aftermath of a Turkish artillery bombardment in the Amediye region. One of the victims was 12 years old. The second victim lost a leg in an airstrike. Four members of the PKK were killed and several others were injured.

Shortly after military operations against the PKK started, access to the websites of pro-Kurdish newspapers and news agencies was denied "by decree of court." These websites -- including Fırat News Agency (ANF), Dicle News Agency (DIHA), Hawar News Agency (ANHA), Ozgur Gundem newspaper, Yuksekova News, Rudaw and BasNews -- are still blocked in Turkey.

ISIS, meanwhile, has not so far made any statement regarding Turkey's so-called bombings of ISIS in any of its media outlets.

Had the Turkish military attacked the PKK alone, and not in addition to attacking ISIS, it would probably have received widespread international condemnation. So to add "legitimacy" to its attacks against the Kurdish PKK -- whose affiliate Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria and its armed wing, the Kurdish People's Defense Units (YPG) have been resisting ISIS and other Islamist terrorist groups since 2013 -- Turkey declared that it will also attack ISIS. This would give it cover for its attacks against Kurdish fighters.

In 2014, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the plan he wanted to carry out in Syria and Iraq: "The problem in Syria should be taken into account. Iraq too should be considered similarly. Moreover, there needs to be a solution that will also deal with the Syrian wing [PYD] of the separatist terrorist organization [PKK]."

The AKP government, dissatisfied with the results of last month's parliamentary elections, also seems to want to hold new elections, to push the mainly Kurdish HDP Party below the required 10% threshold, and thus force them out of parliament. Perhaps the government thinks that bombing the PKK will generate Turkish nationalist enthusiasm that will work in the AKP's favor to help it regain a majority in early elections.

Apparently, Turkey does not need Kurdish deputies in its parliament. Apparently, the state prefers to slaughter or arrest the Kurds -- as it has done for decades. Why hold talks and reach a democratic resolution when you have the power to murder people wholesale?[1]

Sadly, Turkey has preferred not to form a "Turkish-Kurdish alliance" to destroy ISIS. First, Turkey has opened its borders to ISIS, enabling the growth of the terrorist group. And now, at the first opportunity, it is bombing the Kurds again. According to this strategy, "peace" will be possible only when Kurds submit to Turkish supremacism and abandon their goal of being an equal nation.

In the meantime, Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkish minister of foreign affairs, said that the Incirlik air base in Turkey has not yet been opened for use by the U.S. and other coalition forces, but that it will be opened in the upcoming period.

Kurdish forces, therefore, are the only forces that are truly resisting the Islamic State.

They have been repressed by Baghdad and murdered by Turkey and Iran.

If this is how the states that rule over Kurds treat them, why is there even any question as to whether the Kurds should have their own self-government?

As a result of the ISIS attacks in the region, the Kurdish PKK -- as well as its Syrian Kurdish affiliate, Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed wing, Kurdish People's Defense Units (YPG) -- have emerged as the America's most effective battlefield partners against ISIS. Ever since ISIS became a major force in Syria, the U.S. has apparently relied heavily on YPG to stop ISIS from advancing. According to Henri Barkey, a former State Department specialist on Turkey, "The U.S. has become the YPG's air force and the YPG has become the U.S.'s ground force in Syria."

Turkey openly supports ISIS.

This is exactly how Buhari has stopped all major military offensives against Boko Haram but is manufacturing baseless lies to bomb the Niger Delta.

Why are muslims universally terrorists?

Turkey is the only Nation to host an embassy of the Islamic State.

ISIS opens diplomatic consulate in Istanbul, Turkey’s President denies
Istanbul (IraqiNews.com) On Wednesday the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed that it had opened its first diplomatic consulate in Istanbul.

Abu-Omar al-Tunisi, the head of ISIS Foreign Relations announced that ISIS is determined to open its first diplomatic consulate in Istanbul, and in a friendly country like Turkey.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan firmly denied the ISIS presence in the country, however, an official source in the government anonymously stated that Turkey is developing formal relations with ISIS following al-Tunsi’s announcement that ISIS has opened a consulate in Istanbul.

According to Turkish daily Aydinlik, the consulate will provide consular services for all who wish to join the group, send money funds, and will pay the hospital fees of all wounded militants who traveled to Turkey to receive medical treatment.

It is noteworthy that Twitter recently suspended an account that belonged to ISIS and had shown the address and contact information of the ISIS consulate in Istanbul.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia alarm the West by backing Islamist extremists the Americans had bombed in Syria

Turkey and Saudi Arabia are actively supporting a hardline coalition of Islamist rebels against Bashar al-Assad’s regime that includes al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, in a move that has alarmed Western governments.

The two countries are focusing their backing for the Syrian rebels on the combined Jaish al-Fatah, or the Army of Conquest, a command structure for jihadist groups in Syria that includes Jabhat al-Nusra, an extremist rival to Isis which shares many of its aspirations for a fundamentalist caliphate.

The decision by the two leading allies of the West to back a group in which al-Nusra plays a leading role has alarmed Western governments and is at odds with the US, which is firmly opposed to arming and funding jihadist extremists in Syria’s long-running civil war.

It threatens to trump Washington’s own attempt to train pro-Western opposition fighters, announced by President Barack Obama a year ago but finally launched only last week. The number of fighters involved is small and, crucially, the State Department insists that they would take the field against Isis and not against the regime.

TURKISH MEDIA PRAISES ISIS, CONDEMNS KURDISH RESISTANCE FIGHTERS

Headlines in pro-government Turkish media Friday praised the Islamic State while criticizing the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which, with the help of US-led air strikes, consolidated their hold over the 400-kilometer region next to Turkey’s border earlier this week.

The Sabah Daily, for example, ran the headline “YPG Is More Dangerous than ISIS.” The paper is known as a staunch supporter of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

Sabah claimed that according to military personnel in Ankara, ISIS could be wiped out within two to three years, whereas the formation of a Kurdish block in the region could have much longer lasting effects. The pro-government daily also suggested that the real target of the Kurdish militants is actually Turkey.

Likewise, news reports attacking the YPG and suggesting that ISIS was better and more humane than the Kurdish fighters could be found in other dailies supportive of the Erdogan government, including the Star, the Yeni Akit, and the Akşam.

According to reports, as prime minister Erdoğan invested in the media as a means of influencing public opinion in favor of his administration. A group of businessmen allegedly pooled funds to purchase a media group following Erdoğan’s instructions in return for privileged treatment in public tenders. The media corporations purchased by the group came to be known as “pool media.”

Friday’s pro-ISIS news was the latest in a series of indications of Turkey’s support for the Islamic State.

In April, Hassan Sakr, head of external relations for the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), accused Turkey of supplying logistical support to ISIS. “There are some countries in the area,” said Sakr, “who continue to help and provide support to terrorists, such as Turkey, which is helping ISIS outposts logistically and regarding security.” Sakr also said that “in Turkey, there are also training camps for jihadists where militants receive ISIS training.”

Two weeks ago, the Turkish opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet published a damning report against the Erdoğan government’s collusion with ISIS, complete with pictures and videos of weapons destined for armed Islamic groups in Syria in trucks escorted by members of the Turkish secret service MIT.

Erdogan responded by threatening the paper’s editor, Can Dundar, warning him that he would pay a “heavy price” for the revelations, which the president called a “violation of state secrets.”

The Turkish government has since requested a sentence of life imprisonment for Dundar.

The battle in Iraq consists of "Turkish-backed Sunni jihadis rebelling against an Iranian-backed Shi'ite-oriented central government,".

Some readers question that the Republic of Turkey has supported the "Islamic State in Iraq and Syria," the main Sunni group fighting in Iraq. They point to ISIS attacks on Turkish interests, within Turkey, along its border with Syria, and in Mosul and a successful recent meeting of the Turkish and Iranian presidents. Good points, but they can be explained.

First, ISIS is willing to accept Turkish support even while seeing the Islamist prime minister and his countrymen as kafirs (infidels) who need to be shown true Islam.

Second, the presidential visit took place on one level while the fighting in Syria and Iraq took place on quite another; the two can occur simultaneously. Turkish-Iranian rivalry is on the rise and, as the distinguished Turkish journalist Burak Bekdil notes in the current issue of the Middle East Quarterly:

Recent years have often seen official language from the two countries about prospering bilateral trade and common anti-Israeli ideological solidarity. But mostly out of sight have been indications of rivalry, distrust, and mutual sectarian suspicion between the two Muslim countries.

Ankara may deny helping ISIS, but the evidence for this is overwhelming. "As we have the longest border with Syria," writes Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a Turkish newspaper columnist, "Turkey's support was vital for the jihadists in getting in and out of the country." Indeed, the ISIS strongholds not coincidentally cluster close to Turkey's frontiers.

Kurds, academic experts and the Syrian opposition agree that Syrians, Turks (estimated to number 3,000), and foreign fighters (especially Saudis but also a fair number of Westerners) have crossed the Turkish-Syrian border at will, often to join ISIS. What Turkish journalist Kadri Gursel calls a "two-way jihadist highway," has no bothersome border checks and sometimes involves the active assistance of Turkish intelligence services. CNN even broadcast a video on "The secret jihadi smuggling route through Turkey."

Actually, the Turks offered far more than an easy border crossing: they provided the bulk of ISIS' funds, logistics, training and arms. Turkish residents near the Syrian border tell of Turkish ambulances going to Kurdish-ISIS battle zones and then evacuating ISIS casualties to Turkish hospitals. Indeed, a sensational photograph has surfaced showing ISIS commander Abu Muhammad in a hospital bed receiving treatment for battle wounds in Hatay State Hospital in April 2014.



One Turkish opposition politician estimates that Turkey has paid $800 million to ISIS for oil shipments. Another politician released information about active duty Turkish soldiers training ISIS members. Critics note that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has met three times with someone, Yasin al-Qadi, who has close ties to ISIS and has funded it.


Why the Turkish support for wild-eyed extremists? Because Ankara wants to eliminate two Syrian polities, the Assad regime in Damascus and Rojava (the emerging Kurdish state) in the northeast.

Regarding the Assad regime: "Thinking that jihadists would ensure a quick fall for the Assad regime in Syria, Turkey, no matter how vehemently officials deny it, supported the jihadists," writes Cengiz, "at first along with Western and some Arab countries and later in spite of their warnings."

Regarding Rojava: Rojava's leadership being aligned with the PKK, the (formerly) terrorist Kurdish group based in Turkey, the authoritative Turkish journalist Amberin Zaman has little doubt "that until recently, Turkey was allowing jihadist fighters to move unhindered across its borders" to fight the Kurds.

More broadly, as the Turkish analyst Mustafa Akyol notes, Ankara thought "anybody who fought al-Assad was a good guy and also harbored an "ideological uneasiness with accepting that Islamists can do terrible things." This has led, he acknowledges, to "some blindness" toward violent jihadists. Indeed, ISIS is so popular in Turkey that others publicly copy its logo.

An Istanbul-based charity (acronym: HİSADER) has adopted the ISIS logo with the Islamic statement of faith.


In the face of this support, the online newspaper Al-Monitor calls on Turkey to close its border to ISIS while Rojava threatened Ankara with "dire consequences" unless Turkish aid ceases.

In conclusion, Turkish leaders are finding Syria a double quagmire, what with Assad still in power and the Kurdish entity growing stronger. In reaction, they have cooperated with even the most extreme, retrograde and vicious elements, such as ISIS. But this support opened a second front in Iraq which, in turn, brings the clash of the Middle East's two titans, Turkey and Iran, closer to realization.