Will Turkey intervene in Syria’s Kurdish areas?

By Adib Abdulmajid:

Due to the withdrawal of Assad forces from a number of Kurdish areas in northern Syria, Kurdish forces took control of these areas and declared them liberated; a fact which led to a remarkable growth in Turkish fears concerning the potential establishment of an independent Kurdish entity in Syria, and these worries have been repeatedly expressed by the Turkish authorities recently.

The Turkish foreign policy towards its neighbouring countries is basically known as a ‘soft power policy’, and this was proven over seventeen months of struggle in Syria, during which the Turkish government – as a regional power – adopted a threatening stance towards the Syrian regime without taking any effective steps to prevent the continued massacres committed by the Assad forces against the Syrians. Instead, the Turks kept merely condemning the brutal crackdown.

Since the beginning of the Syrian revolution, the Kurds were the only component of Syrian society to question the motives behind the Turkish position on Syria, and this could be considered a logical attitude by the Syrian Kurds towards a Turkish regime which is used to oppressing and persecuting more than 20 millions of Kurds in Turkey. Thus, how would a suppressive government support a democratic change in a neighbouring country!?

However, the Syrian anti-Assad demonstrators tried consistently to show loyalty to Turkey – as a potential ally – and appreciation for its support for the Syrian revolution, and the Turkish flag was repeatedly raised by demonstrators at the beginning of their revolt. But after the Syrians gradually recognized Turkey’s ‘soft power policy’ towards Assad regime, and as the repeated threats of the Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan stayed mere words, opponents of Assad – except for those who are based in Istanbul – started to criticize the Turkish vague and inactive policy towards developments in the Syrian arena.

The shelling by pro-Assad forces didn’t exclude some Turkish border areas and a Turkish F-4 warplane was shot down by the Syrian air defences amid a remarkable Turkish silence.

It seems that these violations didn’t spark the anger of the Turkish authorities as much as the recent developments in the Kurdish region in Syria.

Turkey’s ‘Kurdish complex’ has remarkably influenced its wobbling position towards developments in Syria, and its attitude is basically seen as part of a floundering policy concerning a democratic change in Syria. In other words, there is a psychological ‘complex’ which was a constituent factor in the establishment of the Ataturk republic, based on the policy of eliminating religious minorities and the Turkification of the Kurds, and the tools of this policy were persecution, suppression, and exclusion. However, the policy of Turkification has failed and left unforgettable suffering.

Despite its promises to solve all the chronic problems in the country, the ruling Justice and Development Party couldn’t achieve any significant progress regarding the Kurdish issue in Turkey. The promises remained merely within the framework of election propaganda and the trend of the Ataturki policies overcame any potential democratic ambitions by the political authority in Turkey.

Moreover, the Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has constantly pressured the Syrian National Council (SNC) – the largest Syrian opposition umbrella – not to respond to the demands of the Kurdish parties in Syria; a fact which aggravated the division within the Syrian opposition.

Turkish fears regarding the liberation movement in the Kurdish areas in northern Syria are said to be caused by the potential control of these areas by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which, according to Turkey, might turn them into a base for the fighters of the PKK to attack Turkish forces after the collapse of the Assad regime.

Despite the difference in methods of seeking a fair solution to attain Kurdish rights, it might be unrealistic to separate the issues of the Kurdish people in both of Syria and Turkey, but the Turkish fear of the potential PKK role in Syria’s Kurdish region is seen as insufficient grounds for it to interfere in the Kurdish affairs in Syria.

On the other hand, Turkish relations with the Iraqi Kurdistan Region have seen a remarkable development over the past few years as Turkish economic interests have grown in the Region; a fact which led observers of developments in the Kurdish areas in Syria to expect the Iraqi Kurds to play a prominent role in supporting their peers in Syria.

As the Turkish government’s concerns regarding developments in the Syrian Kurdish arena have remarkably escalated, Turkey’s ‘soft power policy’ seems to be at stake, and a Turkish military action against the Kurdish areas in Syria is likely to take place sooner or later. But would the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) take any preventive action to deter Turkish ambitions in Syria’s Kurdistan?

Copyright © 2012 Kurdistantribune.com

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