"The fact that some Syrian border posts are no longer controlled by troops loyal to Bashar al-Assad but by Syrian Kurdish rebel groups, and that Kurdish flags have been raised in some Syrian border towns with Kurdish populations, has seriously disturbed the Turkish government," the article by Murat Yetkin published by Hurriyet reads.
"One group in particular has attracted Turkey’s attention, the well-organized Democratic Union Party (PYD), which according to spokespersons “shares the same ideology” with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The PKK has been waging an armed campaign against Turkey for the last three decades, claiming more than forty thousand lives to date," the author says.
"Concern about the rise of the PYD caused Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan to convene an emergency meeting in Ankara with his top security and foreign policy team members. Another matter of concern to Ankara was the fact that some of the Syrian Kurdish militants in Syria have been sheltered and trained by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq, while the KRG’s leader Masoud Barzani has promised Erdoğan that he will convince the PKK (based in his territory) to give up its “armed struggle” against Turkey. The government is going to take some “additional measures” against the PKK presence along the Turkish borders with Syria and Iraq, according to a statement issued following the meeting," the article reads.
"Yet there are three countries in the region which have the capability to expand, rather than shrink: Israel, Iran and Turkey. There are already political and economic actors trying to push Turkey to claim some energy-rich parts of Iraq and Syria, which would mean a regime change such as a federated Turkey, with Kurdish and possibly Arabic members. But Ankara instinctively resists the idea of border changes, which could drag the whole region into a chain reaction of wars. The region is heading towards a dangerously unstable phase because of the civil war in Syria," the author concludes.
