COMPLICATED CONFLICT
NATO to Turkey: Fight ISIL, not the Kurds.
LONDON • NATO urged Turkey to show restraint Tuesday as its war against the Kurds in the far southeast showed signs of slipping out of control and damaging the U.S.-led coalition’s fight against ISIL jihadists.
A NATO statement following an emergency meeting called by Turkey, a NATO member, said it stood in “strong solidarity” with Ankara against “terrible acts of terror.”
Turkey last week joined the coalition’s bombing raids on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in northern Syria, and allowed U.S. jets to use two of its airbases to stage its own raids.
However, Turkish jets have also begun bombing bases of the outlawed PKK, the Kurdish guerrilla group, after it claimed responsibility for killing three police officers in Turkey last week.
The PKK’s Syrian affiliate, the YPG, has been successfully fighting ISIL in Syria in co-ordination with U.S. airstrikes, so the Western allies fear the gains from Turkey’s participation in the raids on the jihadists will be offset against the damage done to the Kurds.
“Reconciliation should continue,” the Dutch NATO ambassador, Marjanne de Kwaasteniet, said, echoing what officials said other countries had said privately in the meeting.
The European Union also stressed the need for “proportionality” against the PKK.
The upsurge in violence between the PKK and the Turkish government is an unwelcome distraction to its Western allies, who until recently had been under pressure to remove the PKK from international terrorism lists owing to the allied YPG’s role in the war against ISIL, including in the now-celebrated battle for Kobane.
The PKK Tuesday killed a Turkish army sergeant near the Iraqi border, the day after a gendarmerie major died of injuries sustained in a PKK attack in the town of Mus.
On Monday night, a huge explosion on the natural gas pipeline between Iran and Turkey cut off supplies, and was also blamed on the PKK.
In retaliation, Turkish F-16 jets struck PKK positions near the border with Iraqi Kurdistan. “It is not possible for us to continue the peace process with those who threaten our national unity and brotherhood,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
Although officials said the peace process, which had led to a ceasefire in the four-decade-long battle between Ankara and the PKK, was not yet over, Erdogan also continued a fierce verbal assault on the country’s Kurdish minority.
He threatened to lift the immunity granted to MPs to allow investigations into “connections to terrorism” of the main Kurdish political party, the HDP, which won seats in parliament for the first time in June. Critics said that was a nakedly political move, aimed at reviving the fortunes of his ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party).
The HDP’s success in the election robbed the AKP of its overall majority and has so far prevented it forming a government. Lessening its popularity would be key to success for Erdogan should a new election be necessary.
“Those who exploit the people and the state’s tolerance and patience will receive the answer they deserve as soon as possible,” he said. “Any step back is out of the question. This is a process and this process will continue with the same determination.”