TÜRKİYE ORTA ASYA HABER KKUORDİNATÖRÜ

THE GREAT GAME AGAINST TURKEY                            IFJ-INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF JOURNALIST                          BBBC/NEWS Michael Stephens Türkiye’s threat to Kurds in Syria is existential As Assad fled Damascus, Erdoğan was poised to deal a crushing blow to his enemies The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime has ushered in significant change in Syria. Around the world, news of the fall of the brutal regime was greeted with jubilation and hope for better days for the Syrian people. But the regime’s fall is not the end of the story. A second civil war appears poised to erupt in the north of the country between the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), made up mostly of ethnic Kurds, and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Turkey has made no secret of the fact that it will never accept the emergence of a Kurdish quasi-state on its border run by the Kurdish PYD, which it considers a terrorist organization. Even as Assad fled his palace in Damascus on Sunday, the SNA began launching attacks on SDF positions, driving the SDF out of several towns and cities near Aleppo. At the time of writing, the SNA has captured the SDF-held city of Manbij, and Turkish drone strikes are targeting SDF positions in the border town of Kobani. Kobani is a Kurdish city perhaps best known for its heroic resistance against ISIS forces in 2015. During the fighting, YPG forces (the Kurdish force within the SDF) fiercely resisted repeated ISIS attacks and then launched a swift counter-offensive, supported by international coalition airstrikes, driving ISIS out of nearly a third of Syrian territory. Turkey is a NATO ally that has played a key role in reducing the influence of Russian military forces in Ukraine. Turks also have legitimate security concerns, as many politicians of the PYD, the leading Syrian Kurdish political party, are close to the outlawed Turkish PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by both the UK and the US. With so much at stake, can the US afford to anger such a crucial ally? The fact that Turkey, a NATO ally, and Israel, the US's closest regional ally, are so opposed to each other suggests that this is not a truly viable option for the US. Ultimately, however, the president must choose between two options: Support the Kurds and alienate Türkiye, or abandon the Kurds and anger Israel, potentially harming anti-ISIS operations? The US has lulled Turkey into submission with the fallacies of "They made their biggest game by overthrowing Bashar al-Assad, and Turkey won," and now the biggest threat to Turkey is the Israeli state, which shares its border with Türkiye, and the vast Kurdish issue.