http://themilitant.com/2015/7930/793003.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 79/No. 30 August 24, 2015
(front page)
Backed by US, Turkish gov’t
expands war on Kurds
BY BRIAN WILLIAMS
As Washington beefs up its military operations from the Incirlik Air
Base in southern Turkey with airstrikes in Syria primarily aimed at
Islamic State, the Turkish rulers have been stepping up their attacks on
Kurdish fighters in Turkey and Iraq along with provocative actions
targeting Kurdish-controlled areas on its border with Syria. Protests
have condemned Ankara’s assaults, and Washington and NATO’s complicity,
both in Turkey and beyond.
Thousands attended a demonstration in Istanbul Aug. 9 called by the
Peace Bloc, a coalition of 80 organizations, reported Hurriyet Daily
News. Authorities deployed water cannons and attempted to prevent
participation by blocking roads leading to the action.
The previous day some 5,000 Kurds and supporters rallied in Cologne,
Germany. Hundreds of others took to the streets in Paris; Brussels,
Belgium; Manchester, England; and in protest actions in several U.S.
cities.
Ankara’s airstrikes against the Turkish Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
camps in northern Iraq have killed hundreds and spread fires through the
mountainous areas, forcing residents to flee. Civilian villages have
also been hit, including Zargali, where 10 people were killed Aug. 1.
The Turkish government says the PKK has retaliated by killing at least
20 members of the Turkish security forces.
Despite calls by Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish Regional
Government in Iraqi Kurdistan, that the PKK pull back from the Kurdish
region there, PKK fighters vowed that they would stay. “As PKK and as
Kurds, we are not only fighting for Kurdistan, we are fighting for the
world,” PKK Commander Chem Peri told Rudaw News.
Last December the PKK along with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units
in Syria (YPG) fought to reach Mount Sinjar in northwestern Iraq where
thousands of members of the Yazidi religious group had fled from Islamic
State attacks. The Kurdish fighters succeeded in leading them to safety.
“Fighting against ISIS [Islamic State] makes us feel good like we are
doing something good for humanity,” 25-year-old female commander Dilan
Serdar told Rudaw News.
Police raids target Kurds
In Turkey police raids have led to the arrests of some 1,700 people, the
vast majority of them accused of being members of the PKK and other
fighters for Kurdish rights. While the cops have detained a small number
of Islamic State suspects, many “have been quietly released,” reported
the New York Times.
In the Kurdish region in southeastern Turkey, special operation police
teams raided a construction site in Yuksekova Aug. 5, taking into
custody dozens of Kurdish workers. A video being circulated on social
media shows the detainees being forced to lie face down on the ground
with their hands tied behind their back as the cops yell at them, “You
will face the power of the Turk!”
In battles with police in the nearby town of Silopi Aug. 7, four Kurdish
protesters were killed, as demonstrators sought to prevent the cops from
entering their neighborhoods. “Police forces also set six houses on fire
and opened fire on the ambulances that were carrying the wounded
civilians to the hospital,” reported Kurdishquestion website.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s perspective is to move toward
early elections later this year to reverse a blow his Justice and
Development Party (AKP) suffered in elections in June. Winning 13
percent of the vote, the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP)
entered parliament for the first time and blocked the AKP from keeping
the majority it had held for 12 years. The vote set back Erdogan’s plans
to expand the executive powers of the presidency. The deadline for
forming a governing coalition is Aug. 23, though little progress seems
to have been made as the Turkish government focuses on attacking the Kurds.
“We will make them sorry for wanting to go to early polls,” HDP Co-chair
Selahattin Demirtas told the crowd at the Aug. 9 Istanbul rally,
expressing his view that gains won by the Kurds will not be reversed.
U.S. steps up airstikes in Syria
Washington began launching airstrikes from the Incirlik Air Base Aug. 5
and has deployed six F-16 fighters along with 300 military personnel to
the base. This is in addition to the 1,700 U.S. forces that had already
been stationed there, according to Defense Department data.
The base is now central to U.S. airstrikes in Syria, mainly against
Islamic State, but also to provide air cover to the several dozen
U.S.-trained forces on the ground in Syria when they get into
confrontations with al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front or Syrian dictator Bashar
al-Assad’s forces. In one of their first actions the “trainees” suffered
a blow, with five of them kidnapped by Nusra Front Aug. 4.
The deal drawn up by Washington and Ankara allowing U.S. forces to
operate out of the Incirlik Air Base is also aimed at obstructing YPG
fighters in Syria from making further advances against Islamic State
near Turkey’s border and from strengthening the Kurd’s fight toward an
independent state. The deal involves creating a buffer zone 55 miles
wide and 25 miles deep in northern Syria where Islamic State combatants
will be driven out but Kurdish forces will not be allowed in.
In recent months, the YPG has forced Islamic State fighters out of 2,000
square miles of territory in northern Syria.
Erdogan had declared that he would prevent the establishment of a
Kurdish state in this area “no matter what it costs.” As part of his
regime’s provocative actions aimed at the Kurds in Syria, the Turkish
military has placed dozens of tanks and armored vehicles on the border
by Syria’s Kurdish-controlled Hasakah province.
Related articles:
Protests: ‘Stop US-Turkish assault on Kurdish people!’
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