Beginning on 5 April 2015, contact with Imrali was cut off, and no further talks were allowed. On 24 July 2015, dozens of aircraft bombed guerrilla areas, primarily Kandil, bringing an end to the ceasefire that had been in place for a long period. Talks that had been conducted for years in Oslo and on Imrali with Kurdish interlocutors were also terminated by the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Aligning itself with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the nationalist right, the AKP government launched an intense campaign of violence that has lasted for eleven years against the Kurdish people, Kurdish democratic politics, and pro-democracy forces. This offensive followed the defeat of ISIS in Kobanê and the emergence of the Kurds as a significant political and military force in Syria. In effect, a war was launched against the position the Kurds had gained in Rojava.
The attacks carried out by Turkey-backed armed groups on Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo aim both to dismantle Kurdish gains in Syria and to sabotage the talks taking place on Imrali. Statements by officials of the AKP government and reporting in pro-government media demonstrate that the Turkish state stands behind and is directly involved in the assault on Aleppo. This has not been concealed; on the contrary, the forced displacement of Kurds from Aleppo has been presented as a success of the Turkish state. The use of Turkish armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Sheikh Maqsoud (Şêxmeqsut) and Ashrafieh (Eşrefiyê) constitutes clear evidence of this involvement. Moreover, the defense minister has openly stated, “If we are asked for assistance, we will do what is necessary.”
When Kurds in Syria achieved self-administration, Turkish state officials declared, “We will not repeat the mistake we made in Iraq in Syria,” making clear that they would not accept Kurdish self-rule in Syria based on language, identity, and culture. This also implies that, if given the opportunity, they would seek to eliminate the Kurdish Federal Region bordering Turkey. The Turkish state tolerated the Iraqi Kurdish Federal Region only because it cooperated in the war waged against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). As the PKK’s struggle placed pressure on the Turkish state, the Federal Region was reluctantly accepted. The prevailing calculation now is that, once the PKK is eliminated, that region will be next.
Such an extreme level of hostility toward Kurds is the product of an irrational mindset and policy. Indeed, a genocidal approach toward the Kurds inevitably produces such outcomes. Only those shaped by this mentality and politics can celebrate the evacuation of neighborhoods home to hundreds of thousands of Kurds. The Turkish state has repeatedly engaged in such practices. For this reason, claims that the Turkish state is “against terrorism, not Kurds” cannot be sustained. The joint military exercises conducted with the Iraqi army along the border following the 2017 referendum in the Kurdish Federal Region remain fresh in public memory.
AKP–MHP alliance speaks of Kurdish–Turkish brotherhood. In the second century of the Republic, a vision is promoted of a stronger Turkey built on this brotherhood. This is a noble aspiration. Yet is the hostility directed at Kurds in Syria not a direct act of sabotage against Kurdish–Turkish brotherhood? Those who do not want such brotherhood are precisely the ones adopting a hostile stance toward Kurds in Syria. What else can those who present the evacuation of Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo as a “success” for Turkey be, if not opponents of the process? Those who pursue such policies against Kurds inside Turkey stand on the same side as certain external powers that seek to perpetuate a war between Kurds and Turkey. A century-long policy aimed at the destruction of Kurds, and the Kurdish hostility built on this basis, has blinded minds in Turkey. Presenting this as nationalism or national consciousness reveals that, as with many other things, these concepts too have been distorted and instrumentalized for different purposes.
The attacks carried out in Aleppo have intensified doubts about the process. These assaults are designed to exert pressure on Abdullah Öcalan, the chief negotiator of the Kurds who has pursued the process with patience, on the organization that takes Imrali’s perspectives into account, and on the Kurdish people. Is the AKP–MHP government seeking to derail this process and restart the war by imposing unacceptable demands and pushing through legislation that will inevitably be rejected? The entire world knows that Kurds will not accept policies and impositions that deny their very existence.
If state resources are being used to calculate that external powers will either support or remain silent in the face of attacks on Kurds, and if action is being taken accordingly, this reflects an approach devoid of foresight. Such powers may extend a small concession at first, only to tighten the noose later. Turkey’s vulnerability in this regard will continue to be exploited in the same way.
Source: Yeni Yaşam newspaper