PKK's Trenches: An Existential Crisis

The PKK faces an existential crisis of having unleashed hell on Turkey's Kurds, the organization finds it increasingly difficult to fuel nationalist sentiments by expanding its territory in Syria.

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PKK's Trenches An Existential Crisis
Rolling Out the Red Carpet to Russia

Rolling Out the Red Carpet to Russia

Who lost the Syrian civil war to Russia? Who rolled out the red carpet leading to the Middle East to the Kremlin?

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Turkey has a government that could realize political stability and economic reforms, which will make the following four years predictable.

Reaching an agreement with Moscow and Washington on the Syrian civil war and fighting ISIS, the PKK and PKK-affiliated PYD in the region is the main topic on Ankara's agenda.

It is in the hands of U.S. officials to avoid attacks targeting U.S. missions and citizens. The U.S. should be aware that the support being given to the PYD is also given to the DHKP-C.

The U.S. and Russia, two permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, have been caught fighting a proxy war in Syria on the pretext of fighting international terrorism.

Turkish American Community Should Engage More in American Politics

American administration does not want a serious role in Iraq anymore, at least not under Obama's leadership. The next president should volunteer to make serious political investments and be a sponsor for the political rapprochement in Iraq. Without a rapprochement in Iraq and Syria, the chaos will continue and ISIS will make use of it to last longer.

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Turkish American Community Should Engage More in American Politics
Turkey Worries about the Fragility of the Ethnic Balance in

Turkey Worries about the Fragility of the Ethnic Balance in Northern Syria

Murat Yeşiltaş stressed that Turkey is mainly concerned about the fragility of the ethnic balance in Northern Syria and does not want to see any possible armed conflict between Kurds and Arabs.

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When has the PKK and the PYD’s relation with the Asad Regime started and how has it evolved? Why has ISIS begun to target the PYD? What are the possible implications of the fall of Ayn Al Arab?

The anti-ISIS campaign has evolved into a chess game, played not only by Washington and Turkish officials, but also other regional actors involving a number of subsequent and contradictory moves.

The recent clashes around Kobani are once more demonstrating that the military airstrikes by the international coalition will not be sufficient to eradicate the ISIS from the region without a comprehensive strategy to resolve the crisis in Syria and Iraq at the same time.

The Kurdish political movements in both Syria and Turkey should give up being pragmatists in order to have pragmatic gains. The Kurdish political movements should also give up being opportunists in order to benefit from the opportunities in the region.

Turkey wants regional players to establish a regional order in a peaceful and cooperative manner; it wants governments to reflect the sentiments of their citizens and end the conflicts in the region.

The Demirtaş campaign serves the Kurdish political movement's efforts to turn an ethnically-oriented, regional political party into a national force and to reach out to non-Kurdish voters - which is why they recently established the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

The political performance presented in the Diyarbakır visit of Massoud Barzani, President of the Kurdish Regional Administration in Northern Iraq, and of Erdoğan will create an effect of clearing the early reservations of the Kurdish Movement about the political ground and political strength of Erdoğan.

Barzani, particularly for the last month, made his stance against PYD known. Not to mention, Barzani has been seizing on to a deep strategic alliance with Turkey in the recent years.

As one Kurdish issue is being resolved, another is being created. The new Kurdish issue is nothing but “the PKK’s Kurdish issue.”

In the last few years, the “Kurdish alienation” has deepened more with the cunning of the PKK-PYD and the support of the Arab nationalism that has risen in the region with the occupation of Iraq.

Turkey needs to draw lessons from the past and take necessary steps to facilitate the process.

It would be accurate to interpret the United States’ and the West’s increasing interest in Syria as a rush to secure a role in the scenario in which the Baath regime is nearing its end.

Turkey should recognize that the neighbors with which it will likely share its longest borders are not Syria and Iraq, but Kurdish political entities.