[blind-democracy] Re: Turkey signs on to U.S. air war in, Syria, gets green light to hit Kurds

  • From: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2015 10:28:59 -0700

The Empire is causing great misery. But not to fear. It will all
come home to roost. It always does.
And just where will the American Working Class be when the shit hits the fan?

Carl Jarvis

On 9/11/15, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

http://themilitant.com/2015/7932/793204.html
The Militant (logo)

Vol. 79/No. 32 September 14, 2015

(front page)
Turkey signs on to U.S. air war in
Syria, gets green light to hit Kurds

BY EMMA JOHNSON
An Aug. 23 formal agreement between the Turkish and U.S. governments
marks Ankara’s decision to grant Washington access to the Incirlik air
base and officially join Washington’s bombing “coalition” attacks
against Islamic State in Syria. In exchange, Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan got Washington’s backing to unleash a war on the Kurdish
population in Turkey under the pretext of fighting terrorism.
Erdogan’s goal is to create the political preconditions to thwart
Kurdish aspirations for an independent Kurdistan, expand the executive
powers of the presidency and strengthen the domination of his Justice
and Development Party in November elections. Turkey’s capitalist rulers
and Washington share a common hatred for the Kurdish independence struggle.

Washington negotiated nine months to regain access to Incirlik, which
was restricted since 2003. Sorties from Incirlik to Syria take 15
minutes, compared with three hours from the Arab-Persian Gulf.

Washington needs Turkey in the war against Islamic State for several
reasons. Many of the oil sales that fund IS take place on Turkey’s black
market, and IS combatants and weapons flow freely across the border.

U.S. forces had already begun airstrikes out of Incirlik Aug. 5. Joint
flights with Ankara will start soon, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut
Cavusoglu said.

Washington’s stated aim is to rid a 1,400-square-mile zone in northern
Syria of Islamic State combatants. The Turkish government has made clear
the zone must also be free of Kurdish fighters. This would prevent
further advances westward by Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG),
who now control two-thirds of Syria’s 560-mile border with Turkey and
are the most effective force on the ground fighting Islamic State.
Erdogan has said his government would “never allow” a Kurdish state in
the north of Syria.

In June elections the Kurdish-based People’s Democratic Party (HDP)
passed the 10 percent threshold to enter Parliament, showing it had
support beyond the Kurdish population. This robbed Erdogan’s party of
its governing majority and set back the president’s moves to strengthen
his grip on power. In response, Erdogan blocked the formation of any
government coalition and pushed through a call for elections Nov. 1.

An outright war on the Kurds
Immediately after the initial deal with Washington was announced July
23, the Turkish government unleashed an outright war on the Kurdish
people, under the pretext of fighting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK),
branded terrorist both by Ankara and Washington. In addition to bombing
areas in Iraqi Kurdistan and firing artillery on YPG forces in Syria,
Erdogan set off a wave of repression against Kurds in Turkey,
specifically targeting Kurdish areas in the southeast.
The Kurds, 30 million people in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, have been
fighting national oppression and for a homeland for more than a century.
In 1984, the PKK opened armed struggle against the Turkish government,
which responded with brutal repression against the Kurdish population.
Over the following decades tens of thousands were killed.

Bombings and other acts targeting civilians carried out by the
Stalinist-trained leadership of the PKK have caused unnecessary
casualties, weakening the Kurdish fight, and gave a series of Turkish
regimes the pretext to attack the broader Kurdish population.

In 2013 Erdogan’s government and the PKK reached a cease-fire agreement
and in the period since, the struggle for Kurdish autonomy and national
rights around culture, language, education and freeing of political
prisoners made advances.

Since Erdogan canceled the cease-fire in late July, Kurdish areas have
been under daily attack. Ankara declared a state of emergency in Kurdish
districts across southeast Turkey and sent in special forces, supported
by the army, to target civilians, bomb workplaces and set homes on fire.
Towns and provinces have been sealed off and power and water supplies cut.

“Hundreds of people from both sides have lost their lives so far,” Harun
Ercan, international relations advisor with the HDP in Diyarbakir,
Turkey, told the Militant by phone Sept. 2. “In addition to military
operations, the Turkish government started to arrest both cadres and
elected officials of our party two weeks ago. In reaction, people’s
assemblies started to demand local autonomy. The government responded by
arresting mayors — so far seven.”

Ercan said the PKK announced it will not retaliate against Turkish armed
forces if they do not launch attacks on local people and PKK fighters.

“But today the prime minister sent a memo to all governors in the
Kurdish region to continue the ‘war on terror’ policies in a more strict
manner,” he said. “The international community should be concerned about
the November elections and to what extent the Kurdish people will be
able to use their democratic rights.”


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