Turkey’s PKK Fight Spirals Out Of Control

Over the course of the last week, the Turkish military and police forces have found themselves coming under increasingly deadly attacks by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). As well as continuing assassinations, gun, and missile attacks on their positions in Turkish Kurdistan, security forces are taking severe losses from the same technology which caused havoc for Coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan: IEDs. On the 6th of September, two Turkish Army armoured vehicles were attacked by a PKK roadside bomb in Daglica, a remove village close to the southern border with Turkey. While the details of the incident are not yet fully clear, what is confirmed is that at least 16 Turkish soldiers were left dead (the PKK claims a higher toll) and several vehicles were destroyed. In response, the Turkish Air Force conducted massive air raids comprised of least 50 aircraft targeting PKK camps in Northern Iraq.

This massive aerial response however does not seem to have impacted the PKK’s operational capabilities or indeed its will to fight, for it was followed by yet another bloody day for Turkey. This morning, 12 police were killed and 4 more injured when their bus stuck an IED in the country’s north-eastern province of Iğdır. Then, this afternoon, news emerged of another PKK attack, this time in the southern city of Cizre, where 3 more police were killed in an RPG attack.

With airstrikes not enough to dislodge the PKK, the Turkish military then made decision to strike back against the militants and send ground forces across the border into Iraq. Reports emerged in the wake of today’s attacks that the Turkish Army had sent a battalion of at least 1000 troops and vehicles into Iraq in order to “pursue” PKK attackers.

This amounts to a large-scale escalation of the conflict and represents a further undermining of the sovereignty of Iraq, already weakened by the advance of ISIS. This being said, it is not unprecedented, with a similar incursion being undertaken by Turkey in 2008. Drawing a parallel with this event, it seems unlikely that Turkey’s armed forces will be able to uproot the PKK from this region, and indeed this cross-border attack may serve to even further inflame the fighting.

The nature of the PKK and the terrain in which it fights gives it a massive advantage over time. Distributed across tens of thousands of sq. km of mountainous terrain, their fighters are able to rely on guerrilla tactics, picking when and where to fight Turkey’s military. As well, many PKK fighters are battle hardened through years fighting both Turkey as well as ISIS, while many within the Turkish military are young conscripts with understandably low morale.

Giving that these are not difficult observations, thought needs to be put into why Turkey has even chosen to fight the PKK at this stage?

To answer this question, one only needs to take a look at the political situation within Turkey. In the recent general elections incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AK Party (AKP) failed to gain the necessary 50% it needed to form a majority government. Instead, the pro-Kurdish HDP performed surprisingly well, blocking the AKP’s chances, and forcing a number of rounds of (failed) coalition government negotiations.

Seeing the writing on the wall and imminent snap elections, Erdogan likely believes that through a resumption of hostilities with the PKK, he can gain politically. AKP supporters have ramped-up allegations that the HDP is a political wing of the PKK and state-run media has become increasingly hostile towards the party. By linking it with the PKK who are very unpopular in the majority of Turkey, Erdogan hopes that he can reduce the HDP vote in upcoming elections to below the 10% threshold needed to enter parliament, and thus lead the AKP to a majority victory.

Nonetheless, if polling is to be believed the HDP has not seen a significant fall in support within Turkey, meaning that Erdogan is playing a very dangerous game politically and with the lives of his soldiers. This conflict with the PKK is continuing to escalate and the body count climbs higher with each passing day. He can either decide to de-escalate with the PKK and return attempt to return to earlier peace talks or he can continue to up the ante with addition cross border attacks and a further crackdown in Kurdish areas of Turkey, in an attempt to intimidate potential HDP voters.

Both strategies are incredibly risky from a domestic politics and regional security standpoint. All eyes will be on Erdogan and the AKP for what stance they take in the run up to snap elections called for Novemeber 1. Unlike most conflicts however, this latest PKK-Turkey struggle will not revolve around the success and failure of a military campaign, but rather an electoral one.

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The Aftermath of the Suruc Bombing: Riots and Retaliation

This week began with the horrifying news of an apparent suicide bombing in the Turkish town of Suruc. This predominantly Kurdish town lies just across the Syrian border from the YPG-controlled city of Kobane, and has served for months as a stepping-stone into Kurdish regions of Syria. On Monday this week the town played host to a left-wing Socialist Youth group who were planning to bring aid to Kobane. As they gathered together, a bomb exploded in the crowd, killing at least 32 people and maiming many more. The footage of this attack can be viewed below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnrFzBi7dKk

With the burials beginning, the discussion shifted to who was to blame. While in most instances of these ‘spectacular bombings’, the group involved (usually IS or one of its affiliated ‘Wiliyaat’) generally claims responsibility as soon as possible, this was not the case for this attack. Due to the lack of an obvious claim of responsibility from IS, many people began to draw their own conclusions.

Among the most important of these is a theory held by many Kurds within Turkey, as well as members of the country’s Left scene, that the attack was either carried out, or at the very least allowed to occur, by the Turkish government. Proponents of this theory point out that many of those killed in the bombing were leaders of the Gezi Park demonstrations and are viewed as enemies of the current government. Others point out that the Socialist Youth meeting was heavily protected, and the bomber would have been unlikely to get through security checks without major lapses of police attention.

While it is not within the scope of this article to examine the veracity of these claims, what is important is that there is a significant group of people who believe them, and this is having real-life consequences. Over the last two nights there have been wide-scale anti-Government demonstrations across Kurdish regions of Turkey, as well as in Istanbul. Many of the protests turned violent, and in at least a few instances, protesters were photographed carrying automatic rifles.

https://twitter.com/rConflictNews/status/623520168950546432

This tension then ratcheted up even further last night when 2 Turkish police were found dead not far from the Syrian border. In a stunning move, a PKK-affiliated website then announced that guerrillas from the organisation conducted this killing as retaliation for the bombing in Suruc.

“Today around 6 am, a punishment operation was carried against 2 policemen collaborating with ISIS in Serêkaniyê North. Both policemen were killed and their weapons/ID documents were seized by an Apocî team,” a translation of the PKK statement read.

This killing, and the clear admission of responsibility by the PKK, amounts to an extremely dangerous escalation in the region. Kurdish, and left-wing anger towards the Turkish government and the AK Party of President Erdgogan is at an all time high, and now for the first time in recent years, the PKK is openly supporting resistance and attacks against government targets.

https://twitter.com/rConflictNews/status/623581852520087552

With a further crackdown from the Turkish government following these killing almost inevitable, and this coming in conjunction with calls from Kurdish and left-wing groups to once against come out onto the streets tonight, many within the region fear that the situation is about to get much much worse. Cooler heads may prevail, however with people already killed on both sides, this is far from guaranteed.

YPG Continues Lighting Advance In Northern Syria

While ISIS has been advancing on other fronts in Iraq, it is being smashed in the north of Syria, in the Kurdish region of Rojava. There, joint forces belonging to the YPG, YPJ, as well as allied FSA groups such as Burkan al-Firat (Euphrates Volcano) are advancing at rapid pace from two directions, in order to capture the city of Tel Abyad. Taking this city would deny ISIS an important border crossing with Turkey, and unite the two Kurdish cantons of Kobane and Cizire into one singular YPG-controlled region. In the past few days, these joint forces, backed with Coalition airstrikes have managed to make massive gains against ISIS, especially on the eastern front near Cizire Canton. There, YPG forces have advanced tens of kilometres from previously static positions and managed to encircle the ISIS-controlled town of Suluk.

In order to find out more about the situation in the region and the way the battle against ISIS was progressing, Conflict News spoke to ‘Aras’ a YPG fighter currently stationed near the frontline in Cizire Canton.

He confirmed that the town of Suluk has been surrounded, but not captured by the YPG, who instead are pressing their attack towards Tel Abyad.

“The city of Suluk is completely surrounded, and the YPG is now only 8km away from Tel Abyad,” he explained. “North of Suluk the YPG is advancing along the two main roads towards Tel Abyad.”

When asked about the level of resistance which ISIS has been putting up against the YPG advance he characterised it as increasing.

“ISIS resistance has increased the further we push into their territories – they are now using suicide bombings and human shields. This is their primary tactic.”

He also explained that Coalition airstrikes, mainly conducted by the US Air Force, were harming ISIS’s ability to effectively fight the YPG.

“They [ISIS] are unable to move freely around their territory due to Coalition airstrikes.”

Finally, he expressed confidence that the YPG and their allies could see a rapid victory in the region.

“It depends on the level of coalition air support – if we can continue to see similar progress to that of the last 24 hours, we will liberate Tel Abyad within a week.”

Should the YPG manage to pull this off, it would be a large-scale victory against ISIS in Syria. Just north of Tel Abyad lies a border crossing with Turkey, which is incredibly important to the terrorist group as an entry point for foreign fighters, as well as illegally bought arms and other supplies. Denying ISIS this crossing would weaken their ability to wage war across a large region of Syria.

Inside Kobane: The Ruin That Ruined ISIS

Last month, following continuous fighting since September 2014, the battle for Kobane, a small city in northern Syria was won. A combined force made up of the Syrian Kurdish YPG, the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga, as well as several Free Syrian Army groups managed to achieve the unthinkable: a complete rout of ISIS. Prior to the Battle of Kobane every single engagement ISIS had be involved in resulted in overwhelming victories for the so-called ‘caliphate’. But what enabled Kobane to hold out and eventually defeat ISIS? Conflict News spoke to local freelance journalist and Kobane resident Jack Shahine to find out more…

While he was not a fighter in the YPG or the Peshmerga, Jack Shahine was a witness to much of the fighting within the city. He explains: “I was a teacher and translator before the ISIS attack, fled from the city into Turkey with my family during the offensive, then I got back inside the city through the Turkish-Syrian border so many times, for photographing and reporting”