Written by Michael Thervil
Photo by Yavuz Ozden/Dia Photo via AP
It was reported yesterday that Kurdish fighters of the Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê (PKK) also known as the Kurdistan Workers' Party ambushed the state-run aerospace and defense company TUSAS in located in Kahramankazan, Ankara, which is the capital of Türkiye. This ambush attack immediately served as the spark to the flame that would lead to the Turkish Air Force launching a counterattack on 30 Kurdish targets in Iraq hours after in retaliation.
All of the 30 Kurdish targets that the Turkish Air Force selected were destroyed. But it’s predicted that the airstrikes that Türkiye carried out will not deter future attacks from the Kurds. for people who aren’t familiar with the tensions between the Kurds and the Turks, the question that’s on their minds is “how long has this conflict been going on and what is this conflict really about? These two questions are followed by a third question and that is: “why now?”. The final question is highly relevant because there was a cease-fire agreement that was declared between the two sides from the years of 2013-2015 after Turkish hostages were released/exchanged for the Kurdish resistance Leader Abdullah Ocalan who is currently serving a life sentence in a Turkish prison.
Beyond the prisoner swap, and the short-lived cease-fire deal, it seems as if the root cause of the tensions between Kurds and the Turks stem from the lack of legal representation, social stratification, and the failure of the government of Türkiye to respect and recognize the Kurdish culture and their desire to have a Kurdish state. With the Kurds being spread throughout northern Iraq, western Iran, Türkiye, Lebanon, Armenia and northern Syria, it’s easy to see how tensions could arise to the levels that they currently are. From the perspective of the Turks, the Kurds are living in the past and they hold the position that they [Kurds] should assimilate into the greater society. But from the perspective of the Kurds, they seek to preserve their cultural traditions and cultural identity.
With that being said, it's easy to see how the historic tensions between the Kurds and the Turks could easily lead to the countless sporadic armed conflicts over the decades of modern history. Fast forward to yesterday, prior to Türkiye launching two retaliatory airstrikes in both Iraq and Syria; because Kurdish resistance fighters ambushed a state ran air defense facility and either detonated explosives or used a suicide bomber and then opened fire on people which killed 5 people and left over 20 people injured. This Kurdish attack, like their previous attacks, marks another chapter on the failure of Türkiye’s government to respect the Kurdish people’s cultures and traditions. Yesterday’s attack comes almost 30 days after a 51-year-old Australian woman by the name of Cigdem Aslan, was apprehended at an airport in Istanbul, Türkiye.
The Kurdish fighters were able to gain entry into the TUSAS facility by driving through the security gate while security personnel were changing shifts. It was also reported that the Kurdish fighter hijacked a taxi, essentially kidnapping the driver, killing him, and concealing his body in the trunk. It’s suspected by many that this will not be the last conflict between the PKK and Türkiye.
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