Turkey going down wrong road by attacking Kurds: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with William Jones, a member of the Executive Intelligence Review in Leesburg, about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s pledge to press ahead with a campaign against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). 

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: How serious is the situation going to get with this new promise by Erdogan to literally wipe out the Kurds?

Jones: I think there are a lot of people who are angry especially within the US military. Turks came in and they said “could you keep your forces down … we are going to be doing some bombing.” People were absolutely furious. The United States has assisted the Kurdish fighters in the fight against ISIS. They took Kobani. They have been very successful in what they are doing. They proved themselves to be very good fighters.

This is a danger not only to them, this is a danger to the entire region and it is also a danger to the Turks. And what the Turks do, they come to a point where they see that the Kurds are making headway with the support of the United States. They say “hey, we want to be a part of this too, we are going to go in to fight ISIL”, and then they go and bomb the PKK. That is not only an embarrassment to the United States, I think it has caused great anger among many of the military leaders here especially those who work closely with the Kurds on these issues in fighting ISIL.

Press TV: And Turkey has started bombing ISIL positions. How much will this U-turn result in Turkey seeing backlashes from the terrorists it has been supporting?

Jones: I think it is going to cause them a great deal of problems. I mean if they are not serious really in working together with the other forces and the other forces definitely include members of the Kurdish resistance or the YPL in particular which has been doing vanguard role in the region, if this is just window dressing as it seems to be in going after ISIL forces as well as their main target - the Kurdish forces - I think that is just going to cause a great deal of anger. It is going to A: debilitate the actual resistance to ISIL by pulling out by destroying some of the Kurdish forces they could be deployed against ISIL, and B: by even the token operations against ISIL that is going to cause anger among them and they are going to start going after the Turks. So I think it is a lose-lose situation as far as they are concerned and it is certainly a loss for the United States that was quite intent on trying to do something about this ISIL problem in the region.

Press TV: But doesn’t Turkey realize that all this comes at the cost of its economy which mainly feeds from its tourism sector?

Jones: I think they feel that the role that they have in NATO is going to protect them against any retribution on the part of the United States and as of now although there have been anger expressed and concern expressed, that is about as far as US official reaction has been, they have not shown any indication that they are really going to put a stop to this and tell the Turks to really stand down and to get with the program.

As long as they can do that I think Turkey can proceed with its own program. Obviously, it is going to hurt them economically. It is going to cause more terrorist activity within the country and you are going to see another development of a civil war between the Kurds and the Turks in the Kurdish part of Turkey. I think they are heading down the wrong road where they are going to be seriously damaged for a long time to come if they continue this direction.

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