Turkey Steps Up Attacks Against Kurdish Targets in Syria and Iraq

Military operation intensified after attack on Interior Ministry in Ankara

[Istanbul] Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization claims it has “neutralized” a top official of a Kurdish militant group during a military operation in Syria and Iraq following an attack against the government in Ankara.

The Turkish state news channel reported that Yadin Bulut, or “Rizgar Suvar,” was the group’s leader for money and drug laundering, and had been working with the group since 2015.

Turkey has claimed that the attackers came from Syria.

The latest military operation came after two men with a bomb attacked Turkey’s Interior Ministry in Ankara on the day of the opening of parliament.

The two assailants were killed and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan participated in an opening ceremony minutes away from the ministry soon after the attack, for which the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militant group inside Turkey, claimed responsibility.

Omer Özkizilcik, a foreign policy and security analyst based in Ankara, stated that the attack was a turning point for Turkey.

“Every year, the Turkish army pushes the PKK further back from the Turkish border region,” Özkizilcik wrote in a message to The Media Line.

In Syria, since the PKK terror attack in Ankara, Turkey expanded its modus operandi. Before, drones would target PKK leaders in surgical strikes. Since the attack, Turkey also routinely targets PKK’s economic and military infrastructure.

“In Syria, since the PKK terror attack in Ankara, Turkey expanded its modus operandi. Before, drones would target PKK leaders in surgical strikes. Since the attack, Turkey also routinely targets PKK’s economic and military infrastructure,” Özkizilcik said.

Özkizilcik believes that Turkey’s goal is either for another ground operation into Syria or for the US to stop working with Kurdish fighters in the country in favor of Ankara or other forces in Syria.

The US, EU, and Turkey have classified the PKK as a terrorist organization; Ankara insists that the Kurdish fighters it is attacking are tied to it.

Relations between Ankara and Washington have been severely strained after the US fought against ISIS with the help of a Kurdish group in Syria that Ankara believes is connected to the PKK.

Salim Çevik, an associate at the Center for Applied Turkish Studies at Germany’s Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, said that strikes against civilian infrastructure in Syria have intensified.

He says the attack within Turkey, as well as Israel’s military response in Gaza, has made Ankara feel emboldened to hit out at civilian targets.

Turkish officials feel “that they have the right, and nobody can really criticize them because if they are criticized, they will accuse their criticizers … [of] being hypocrites and [having] double standards,” Çevik said.

In a report published at the end of October, Human Rights Watch said that Turkey has targeted critical infrastructure and that millions of people in Kurdish-held areas of northeast Syria had their water and electricity disrupted.

The report also stated that the strikes killed civilians.

The report claims that it is against international law for Turkey to destroy “objects indispensable to the civilian population’s survival.”

Turkey’s state news agency reported that Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had said that his country’s forces would view as legitimate targets facilities such as those providing energy that belong to Kurdish groups against which Ankara is fighting in Syria and Iraq.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry told the Reuters news agency that its operations follow international law.

“In the planning and execution of the operations, only terrorists and their positions, warehouses and shelters are targeted, and the utmost care and sensitivity is shown to prevent harm to civilians and to prevent damage to infrastructure and cultural sites,” the defense ministry wrote in its statement, adding that any claims contradicting this are lies.

The US said soon after that the recent uptick in Turkey’s operations, and how it had shot down a Turkish drone after seeing it launch airstrikes near US forces in Syria, means that there was an indication that Turkey was trying to target the US.

Ankara denied the drone was Turkish.

The foreign minister had warned “third parties” to stay away from facilities or people connected to Kurdish groups.

Celik believed Ankara was trying to gauge how far the US would allow it to go in these operations.

“Turkey is kind of testing American resolve; how much Americans would limit Turkish actions,” he concluded.