Turkey And The Kurds: The History Behind The Turkish Attacks On The Syrian Border
Written by Ariana King, Culture Staff Writer
Turkey versus the Kurds. It’s a topic familiar to anyone following the news concerning the Syrian War. After Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of United States troops from the northern region of the state, the Kurds, a stateless ethnic minority living in the Taurus mountains, stood alone to defend their territory (BBC, 2019; Encyclopedia Britannica, 2019).
Capitalizing on this vulnerability, Turkey launched an offensive against the Kurds almost immediately. Turkey justified this by saying that the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), a coalition made up of Arab and Kurdish fighters, is linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)— a terrorist group recognized by Turkey, the European Union and the United States (BBC, 2019).
While many news outlets emphasize the alleged betrayal by the U.S. of the Kurdish people—our strongest allies in the Syrian war—the reasons behind the Turkish offensive against the YPG can be partially explained through history.
According to Professor Massicard of Sciences Po Aix, by the time the Ottoman Empire fell at the end of World War I, it not only faced the breakup of its territories, but also a fierce wave of nationalism amongst many of its distinct ethnic groups, including the Kurds.
The Treaty of Sèvres in 1920 was a symbol of hope for the Kurds, as it made plans for an independent Kurdish state (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2019). However, Professor Massicard notes that Turkish nationalists refused to accept the Treaty of Sèvres, and thus rejected the desired independence and autonomy of the Kurdish people.
This rejection of Kurdish autonomy, Professor Massicard asserts, is largely explained by the extreme effort of the young Turkish state to rally its people together. Since the Ottoman Empire was so diverse in ethnicities, religions and languages, the new leaders of Turkey made Turkish nationalism the epicenter of the new nation-state.
For ethnic and religious minorities in Turkey—non-Muslims—this led to exclusion from mainstream Turkish society. In the case of the Kurds, Turkey ceased to recognize their true identity and dubbed them “the Mountain Turks.” The state also banned the use of the Kurdish language and traditional dress in and around major administrative cities (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2019).
More subtly, the government additionally encouraged migration to the urban west from the eastern mountains to dilute the Kurdish population in hopes of diminishing the power of any opposition that should arise (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2019).
Due to this discrimination and prejudice, Kurdish opposition arose. In 1984, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was established and has since led an insurgency against the Turkish government in the name of the creation of a Kurdish state (BBC, 2019).
Thus, the YPG’s alleged ties to the PKK legitimize the current Turkish regime’s attacks against the Kurds in Syria (BBC, 2019).
From the Turkish perspective, the Syrian offensive is only logical. They’re chasing long-time state enemies away from their border and, moreover, defending Turkish nationalism. By severely limiting the Kurds’ autonomy, Turkey is able to stand by its claim that the Kurds are simply “the mountain turks.”
When this idea withstands, the Kurdish insurgency becomes even more treacherous—it now becomes a matter of Turks fighting with other Turks. In Turkey’s eyes, the Kurdish existence has never been about a right to self-determination, but rather defending Turkish nationalism and its power over the people.
However, Turkey’s current response to this Kurdish “threat”, as well as the removal of U.S. troops, has been harshly criticized by the international community (Sly et al., 2019). From the Kurdish point of view, the U.S. withdrawal is a betrayal. This betrayal led to the Kurdish YPG, the U.S.’s strongest ally, to work with Russia and Syrian leader Bashar al Assad in order to fight back against Turkish aggression (Sly et al., 2019).
Thus, the hostility between Turkey and the Kurds has created an ambiguous ending to the Syrian War, as there is now no major force left fighting ISIS (Sly et al.,2019). How will this shift in alliances affect Kurdish sovereignty, independence and the fight against ISIS? Only time will tell.
Sources:
BBC. “Who are the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) rebels?” BBC. Last modified November 4, 2016. Accessed October 22, 2019.
BBC. “Turkey Syria offensive: Erdogan and Putin strike deal over Kurds.” BBC. Last modified October 23, 2019. Accessed October 23, 2019.
BBC. “Turkey v. Syria’s Kurds: The short, medium and long story.” BBC. Last modified October 23, 2019. Accessed October 23, 2019.
Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Kurd.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Last modified October 8, 2019. Accessed October 22, 2019.
Global Conflict Tracker. “Conflict Between Turkey and Armed Kurdish Groups.” Council on Foreign Relations.org. Accessed October 22, 2019.
Massicard, Elise. “Introduction to Contemporary Turkey.” Introduction to Contemporary Turkey. Class lecture at Sciences Po Aix University, Aix-en-Provence, France, September 13, 2019.
Massicard, Elise. “Introduction to Contemporary Turkey.” Introduction to Contemporary Turkey. Class lecture at Sciences Po Aix University, Aix-en-Provence, France, September 20, 2019.
Sly, Liz., Louisa Loveluck, Asser Khattab, and Sarah Dadouch. “U.S.-allied Kurds strike deal to bring Assad’s Syrian troops back into Kurdish areas.” The Washington Post. Last modified October 14, 2019. Accessed October 27, 2019.