Why does Turkey attack the Kurds? Turkey struggled with freedom

Shakhawan Shorash | Exclusive to iKurd.net

The USA-Turkey agreement on a ceasefire and, later, between Turkey and Russia, is the result of Turkey’s illegal invasion of October 9, 2019 in northeastern Syria, also known as “Rojava” (West, referring to western Kurdistan), on the basis of allegations that only Turkey and its allies will buy.

Turkey regards the People’s Protection Units (YPG) as a terrorist organization and a threat to Turkey’s national security. But the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) do not agree with Turkey and, in contrast, have allied with the Kurds.

The YPG, the main force in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has helped the West in defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and thus removing this group from Iraq and Syria. It was the SDF who fought ISIS in villages, towns, and the streets, and thousands of SDF men and women lost their lives in the battle.

ISIS was fighting against the free world and the SDF has been fighting for the free world. There is no clear evidence of any attacks by the SDF on Turkey, and the SDF has repeatedly promised that they would not attack Turkey at any time. But why does Turkey attack an area that is stable and where the population is protected?

Since 2012, the Kurds have been able to defend the Kurdish territory against radical Islamists and form an autonomous body whose representatives from all ethnic groups have participated in the rule of The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES). This is a form of secular decentralized self-rule, where equality between men and women, direct democracy, and environmental responsibility are emphasized.

Turkey abhors the decentralized multi-ethnic rule in Rojava for nationalist, religious, and ideological reasons.

First, Turkey could not tolerate the freedom of the Kurds, because Turkey is opposed to any kind of Kurdish rule in Rojava.

Turkey has a large Kurdish minority, whose cultural and political rights the government refuses to recognize, and a new Kurdish autonomy on the southern border would make it difficult for Turkey to continue this policy of denying Kurdish rights. The Turks were unable to stop the Kurdish self-rule in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1991, and it will not allow a new Kurdish autonomy if it is up to them.

Turkish government leaders have not hidden this resolve, either. Therefore, it does not matter whether it is the YPG or another Kurdish political organization that has the power. Since the establishment of the Turkish state in 1923, all governments have followed an ethnic-nationalist policy. Since then, Turkey has denied that there should be ethnic minorities in the Turkish society.

The founder of the Turkish state, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, pursued a strict ethno-nationalist policy aimed at creating an ethnically homogenous national state. All other ethnic groups were to be assimilated into Turkish society. Everyone should speak only in Turkish, and other languages and cultures were therefore banned.

Kamel’s famous phrase, “How happy is the one who says I am a Turk,” reflects this policy. The Kurds, who opposed this policy and demanded their political rights, were defeated and subjected to mass killing and deportations during 1925 – 1935 and genocide in Dersim in 1937–1938.

This nationalistic intolerance against the Kurds still applies among the Turks today. Except for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which is pro-Kurdish, all other political parties have supported the invasion. Furthermore, except for people with leftist beliefs, who form a small part of the population, the majority support the invasion.

Second, Turkey could not tolerate a secular and decentralized multi-ethnic society with direct democracy and equality between men and women on its border. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is an Islamist from the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which is an Islamic political party.

Erdoğan believes in Islamic principles and Sharia law. He believes in a neo-Ottoman ideology in which Turkey is the great Islamic power and plays a leadership role in the Muslim world. He is therefore opposed to a secular society in which religion does not play an important role and where women have significant and prominent roles to play.

A secular society does not fit the conservative and religious great power that Erdoğan wants to achieve. Erdoğan’s neo-Ottoman ideology would therefore not allow this type of society.

Third, Turkey regards the Kurds as unbelievers, and Erdoğan believes that the destruction of Kurdish self-government is God’s calling and is therefore an Islamic duty. He regards the regime as a mockery of the conservative Muslim world in the Middle East.

Free roles for women and feminism that flourish among the Kurds are a direct contradiction of Islamic principles and Sharia law. Turkey has therefore labeled the Kurds of Rojava as unbelievers. When Turkish forces allied with the Free Syrian Army and radical Islamists occupied Afrin in early 2018, Erdoğan referred to Sura al-Feth from the Qur’an.

All mosques in Turkey read this Sura in Friday prayers in support of the Turkish army in the fight against the Kurds. Now again, during this attack and invasion of Rojava, all mosques have read Sura al-Fath and asked God to help the President and the Turkish army in defeating the “infidel Kurds.”

For example, on October 25, 2019, Erdoğan said in a mosque in Istanbul: “we belong to the Ummah of Muhammad…God wants us to show no mercy against the unbelievers…that is as we do in Syria…as God has promised us…victories from God and the opening is near.” By using religion, Erdoğan legitimizes the invasion and cleansing of the Kurds as a religious duty.

Fourth, the SDF has defeated ISIS and prevented the Free Syrian Army and radical Islamist groups from coming to northeastern Syria and turning the territory into a de facto Islamic state supported by Turkey. Turkey protects and supports jihadists such as the al-Nusra Front (the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda) and Ahrar al-Sham, and is accused of supporting ISIS in various ways.

When ISIS attacked Kobani in 2014, Turkey observed the siege passively, even though Turkey allegedly fought against ISIS and the city was on the border between Syria and Turkey. An ISIS leader Taha Abdulrahman Abdulla, who is in prison in Rojava, says ISIS’s attack on Kobani was Erdoğan’s decision and says there has been a close connection between ISIS and Turkey.

Turkey is probably very disappointed that the Free Syrian Army and Islamists were unable to remove the Kurds from the area. Now Erdoğan himself will do something like he did in Afrin in 2018. Erdoğan wants to exterminate or weaken the Kurds in northeastern so that the Kurds can never make up a significant minority in Syria. Turkey will therefore bury the Kurdish dreams of self-government in Rojava.

What happened in Afrin and what is happening now is a violation of international law and human rights, but the international community still looks on passively. The Russia-Turkey agreement does not remove the threat of wide-ranging ethnic cleansing, as hundreds of thousands have already fled the area.

The free world has a legal and political responsibility to force Turkey out of the entire Kurdish territory of northeastern Syria. The free world has a political and moral responsibility to secure the Kurds a political solution whereby their political and cultural rights are secured.

Shakhawan Shorash, BA and Master of political science from Southern University of Denmark and University of Copenhagen. A freelance writer concerning human right, genocide, ethnic conflicts, democratization and similar subjects. Shorash is an occasional contributing senior writer for iKurd.net, See below.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.