Turkey’s Syria Incursion Means Perpetual War on Kurds

A caricature capturing the reality of the Kurdish situation in Rojava.


Pro-Turkey propaganda is rife, stating that Jarablus was “liberated” by the Turkish army with no bloodshed as opposed to the “YPG”- implying that the YPG are an invading, brutal army that kills and murders innocent people unnecessarily as opposed to the more “legitimate” Turkish army. But the reality is that there was no “fighting” to liberate Jarablus because there was clearly an agreement between ISIS-Turkey. The relative ease with which Turkey took over Jarablus has raised significant strategic and policy questions. Why did ISIS fight so hard to keep Kobane or Manbij but not Jarablus? Why did it dig itself in, plant hundreds and thousands of mines and booby traps across Kobane and Manbij, lost thousands of its fighters engaging in a guerrilla warfare and fight for territory house by house, street by street but no sign of its signature strategies in Jarablus? Why did it give in so easily and without any bloodshed in Jarablus?


Now there are suggestions that Turkey and its co-conspirators are set to “liberate” Manbij using the YPG’s presence as a pretext for war -when it is well known that the YPG has left the city, with only the democratic local councils that they encouraged and supported and the Manbij Military Council, made up of local fighters left behind. This process effectively derails the argument that the Kurds are ‘land grabbing’, not to mention that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) contains a large number of Arabs and other ethno-religious groups who have joined in the liberation of towns and cities under ISIS control, and which was responsible for the liberation of Manbij.

But history repeats itself again, Turkey’s so called war on ISIS in Syria codenamed “Euphrates Shield”, is simply another thinly disguised attempt to attack the Kurds, as was the case last year when instead of attacking ISIS it attacked the PKK in the Qandil Mountains in south Kurdistan. Back then too the US had traded in the Kurds for access to the Incirlik (Adana) military base. But now the geostrategic implications of this incursion into Syria are much bigger than just the Kurdish-Turkey conflict. Alluding to this, Turkey Prime Minister Binali Yildirim stated that the invasion of Syria is based on “defending Syria’s territorial integrity”- but the Assad government has strongly condemned the incursion as a clear breach of its sovereignty; as it reflects Turkey’s increasing aspirations for regional leadership and hegemony.

Turkey’s rise to neo-Ottomoanism has been supported by Europe’s utter failure in dealing with the flow of people into Europe, resulting paradoxically in Europe throwing billions of Euros towards Turkey to “stop the refugees”. In turn, Turkey has responded by ferrying refugees back into Syrian territory, shooting, killing, and beating refugees across the Syrian border. Even more paradoxically, the US has aided and abetted Turkey in its invasion and violation of the territorial integrity of Syria and entry into Jarablus with air-cover support, despite the fact that Turkey has been allied with al-Qaida affiliated Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (previously Al Nusra) and ISIS in both Syria and Turkey. Joe Biden’s recent visit and statement earlier this week in support of Turkey alluded to the presence of Turkey in Syria being a long term notion. The resulting consequence was a US backed invasion of Jarablus, when less than a week before the US were helping to provide air support for the SDF’s liberation of Manbij. While this can be seen as a clear message from the US to the Kurds, this shift in alliance must also be viewed as a timely reminder for the Kurds to maintain ideological and military integrity and to remain unaligned with any particular side.

The invasion of Jarablus is also a reflection of the recently bolstered Erdogan’s political power play and his control of the country following the recent failed military coup. The US has rewarded Erdogan for the massive military and civil servant purge that occurred and reaffirmed the iron-clad control over the country by providing it with air cover for its invasion of Syria. The US is clearly aligning itself with the Erdogan’s autocracy, perhaps in a misguided effort to control the situation in Syria while avoiding “boots on the ground”, a mistake it made during the 2003 Iraq invasion and which cost it dearly in a number of ways.




What is clear is Turkey’s next move: to encroach into and destabilise Rojava with attacks on all three cantons and ‘retake’ territory for its Islamist allies. The Kurds most difficult strategic and military play is yet to come.

Originally published on the Kurdish Question. 

Hawzhin Azeez

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