While the international press had been accusing Turkey for supporting or “turning a blind eye” to the jihadists, it suddenly opened a front with them in Syria. At the same time, it gave the green light to air operations against the Kurds! Until recently, however, the Turkish government was the one that had started negotiations with the PKK to resolve the Kurdish issue, a process the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statements ended formally.
The events that led to Turkey’s open war fronts
The big question is how within a few days Turkey changed its stance against ISIS and the PKK. The facts show that everything started with the July 20 suicide bombing by a member of ISIS in Suruc of southeast Turkey, from which 34 people were killed and 100 wounded. All the victims were Kurds. Immediately after began the attacks of the PKK in retaliation, in which policemen and military personnel were killed, and in began attacks on government targets.
Kurds: “The suicide bombings are Erdogan’s doing”
The Kurds claim that Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ahmet Davutoglu have supported the jihadists. “The attack on Suruc was the work of the parallel state of the palace (meaning Erdogan’s palace)”, claimed the president of HDP Selahattin Demirtas. This statement angered the Turkish president who claimed that the HDP is responsible for many deaths and recalled that Demirtas’ brother is fighting in the mountains as a guerrilla of the PKK!
How Erdogan terminated talks with the Kurds, which he himself had started, and has Ankara started fighting the jihadists
The question that remains is the reason that led Erdogan leave the table of negotiations with the Kurds, while at the same time start striking the jihadists. “The government is trapped in its policy on Syria. It was found out that the Kurds are creating their own zone in northern Syria. They were ready cross west of the Euphrates and join the cantons. Ankara was ready to invade Syria to prevent this situation. I believe there was an intervention by the US. They promised Ankara to stop the YPG east of the Euphrates, and called for the support of Ankara regarding the base of Incirlik, as well as the active participation of Turkey in the fight against ISIS”, told IBNA the chairman of the Department of International Relations of Atılım University, Professor Hasan Unal.
Mr. Unal adds that “the terrorist attack of ISIS took place when the jihadists suspected the cooperation between Turkey and the US”.
Turkey plans to create a neutral zone inside Syria
Already the Turkish president spoke of the creation of a buffer zone inside Syria, “which will have been cleansed of terrorist elements”. The Turkish media reported that this zone will have a depth of at least 40 kilometers from the Turkish border and will be located right between the Kurdish cantons. The Turkish government argues that this region will be used to host refugee./Independent Balkan News/