Daily Times

The recent bombings in Ankara have brought Turkey’s political and ethnic tensions, exacerbated by the civil war in neighbouring Syria, to a grim new level. Some analysts now fear that Turkey has become the battleground in a growing war between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Islamic State (IS). The attacks in Ankara, the Turkish capital, came as US allied Kurdish forces affiliated with the PKK were preparing to advance toward IS’s self-declared capital of Raqqa in Syria. This is not the first time Turkey has witnessed the battle of Kurds and IS on its soil. The Ankara attacks follow a July 20 bombing in the town of Suruc that was linked to Syria’s civil war and blamed on a suicide bomber with ties to IS. The attacks come as Turkey is at risk of losing control of stretches of its border areas that have become highways for IS recruits from North Africa and Europe. The flow of jihadists and supplies allows IS to pursue its barbaric effort to build and protect a new state on the territory of Turkey’s neighbours. However, by attacking a pro-Kurdish rally in the capital IS has demonstrated that it can reach into the Turkish heartlands.

The Kurds have been unhappy with how they have been treated as a minority for years by Turkish authorities. Now, their powerful military arm, the PKK, high on morale because of battlefield successes in Syria, is taking on Turkey in the Kurdish dominated areas of Turkey. Turkey fears advances by the Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) militia, backed by its political wing, on the Syrian side of its 900-kilometer-long border will fuel separatist ambitions among the Kurds in its own south-eastern territories. But Washington has supported YPG fighters as an effective force in combating IS. Ankara perceives the ‘danger’ of empowering the Kurdish militia and it has taken stern action against it as well. It has carried out air strikes against the PKK rebels based in the mountains of northern Iraq but attacks on the Kurds in Syria would be far riskier, bringing Ankara into possible conflict both with US and Russian air forces. Even on the home front, the situation is not calm as well for Turkey. The Turks are furious that the government has done little to halt the spread of IS and jihadist activities that are becoming an increasing threat to civil order and the government is facing a multi-pronged challenge that it may find difficult to handle. Turkey, which from the outset of the Syrian war more than four years ago backed rebel groups in the belief that Mr Assad could be quickly toppled, finds itself powerless to shape events in Syria that are affecting its internal stability.

Now, the entry of Russia in Syria in support of President Bashar Al-Assad, has further complicated matters for Turkey. For the past three years, Ankara has been demanding a safe zone in northern Syria where Turkish backed oppositional forces can regroup, as well as a no-fly zone to protect them from Assad. The apparent goal behind this plan was to allow the west and Turkey’s Syrian favourites to conquer Aleppo (Syria’s largest city and once industrial hub) and eventually take Damascus as well. Russia’s latest maneuver, however, has rendered such schemes completely impractical. Its deployment of surface-to-air missiles and air-to-air combat fighters is an obvious warning to Turkey. Unlike the air force-less IS and Syrian opposition, Turkey has, in the past, downed a Syrian fighter jet and Syrian helicopters. Turkey’s inaction following incursions by Russian fighter jets into its airspace must be judged in this light. Russia’s bombing raids in Syria in support of its ally, Assad, threaten to debilitate the moderate rebels and boost the extremists in Syria’s civil war while leaving Turkey to deal with two unruly neighbours: Assad and IS. Because of now conflicting interest in Syria, Turkey’s and Russia’s economic ties are also deteriorating. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently said that Turkey could re-evaluate its cooperation with the Kremlin on a number of key energy projects.

Turkey has legitimate interests in its immediate neighbourhood but it had to re-evaluate its strategy towards Syrian conflict. It has to realise that its policy of allowing rebel fighters, arms shipments and refugees to pass through its territory has been exploited by IS to expand their network. Moreover, Turkish backed rebels in the Syrian arena are not game changers now and fighters like the Kurds and IS, which the Kurds fight against, have their own beefs with Turkey are now significant players in the Syrian war. So now Turkey should consider its own internal security and stability as its prime goal rather than promoting its political agenda in Syria. In regard to that, Turkey should keep strict vigilance over its border with Syria and crack down on IS, and its sleeper cells in Turkish territory.

The writer is a columnist for the Middle-East and Af-Pak region and editor of the geo-political news agency ViewsAround. He can be reached at manishraiva@gmail.com