The “Arab spring” is gradually transforming into the “Kurdish spring”; at least this is what the recent frequent clashes between the Turkish regular army and the Kurdish population of Syria, and, to some extent, Iran, resemble now. Apparently, the Kurds realized that the current mess in the Near East may aid them in creating independent Kurdistan and thus taking control over oil flows not only from Iraq but Syria as well.PanARMENIAN.Net – Turkey, faced with the Kurdish issue for several decades now, plays a major part in preventing such scenario. The Turkish regular army keeps trying to annihilate Kurdish militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), yet to no avail. Penetration onto the territory of sovereign Iraq under the veil of Kurdish camp destruction also ends up in failure. In addition, there are Syrian Kurds united to form the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which has close links with PKK. Furthermore, the Kurdish Pejak party banned in Iran and other independent groups of Kurdish militants also cause serious damage to Turkey.
The failed “zero problems with neighbours” policy by Ahmet Davutoglu stirred talks on his resignation on top governmental level in Turkey, since Turkey’s foreign policy has turned into a “problem with almost all its neighbours”. Also, it is worth noting that in collusion with Assad, PYD controls key regions in north-eastern Syria. Unification of Kurdish groups will most likely result in a total nightmare for Turkey, with independent Kurdistan being established on the territory of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. Also, there is the Kurdish National Council (KNC) operating in Syria; it comprises 11 parties which have no disagreements with either Assad or the Iraqi Kurds.
Ertuğrul Özkök, columnist for the Hürriyet paper asks a quite reasonable question: “We could not manage a 400 kilometer Kurdish border. How are we going to manage 1,200 kilometers?”
“Arabs are fighting each other; Kurds are winning. The Kurds are taking one more step on their path to an independent state. Besides, they are able to achieve this without firing one bullet. So where is Turkey’s Foreign Minister?” Özkök says.
And, of course, the oil: two Kirkuk–Ceyhan strategic oil and gas pipelines are the trump the Kurds can successfully play; actually, they are quite likely to do so. Independent Kurdistan won’t consider Ankara, Baghdad or Damascus.It has everything it needs – the oil, the key advantage in the Near East.
If you have no oil, you have to adjust to others, while oil resources make others adjust to you.
Meanwhile, the Turkish authorities threatened Syria with intervention declaring they won’t allow Kurdish separatists use the territory of this country for their bases. At the same time, Turkey keeps deploying troops at the 900-km Syrian border.
The Turkish government is concerned about the circumstance that Syrian Kurds take control over increasingly large number of settlements near the Turkish border, while the Syrian government continues battling against the rebels in other regions of the country.
“We won’t tolerate establishment of terrorist structure near our border, be it al Qaeda or PKK” Ahmet Davutoglu told the Turkish TV. “This is a matter of our national security, and we will take the necessary action,” he said. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a similar statement last week. The Kurdish separatism emerges again, and many Turkish generals believe the risk becomes increasingly larger for Turkey.