If the World Continues to Silently Support Erdogan the Hands of Turkey Will Go Beyond Syria

• 03.20.2018, 20:10
•  Region,  World

Al-Ahram Weekly

It seems Erdogan’s appetite is gradually increasing. After capturing Afrin and causing tolls also among the civilians, the Turkish President is declaring about the possibility of extending the offensive against Kurdish militants to eastern Syria and northern Iraq. "Turkey’s military will shift their campaign to several towns under the control of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, including Manbij, Kobani, Tal Abyad, Rasulayn and Qamishli, until this terror corridor is fully eliminated," Erdogan said, Bloomberg reports. 

Moreover, Erdogan has already warned the Iraqi authorities about the possible actions, threatening that if Baghdad does not take any step, Turkish army will enter Sinjar. "We told the [Iraqi] central government to resolve the problem or we will enter Sinjar and wipe the PKK terrorists out overnight," Erdogan said, adding that the Baghdad government has vowed to address the issue of PKK presence in Sinjar, but Turkish army may intervene if the Iraqi government’s solution would take long, Basnews reports. 

So, what do we have? A country, where people are being persecuted for any word that may seem critical to Erdogan, where violations of human rights are at very high level, where under the pretext of state of emergency Kurds are being killed – carries out destructive and military actions in other countries as well. And all this for the sake of getting rid of Kurds and securing Turkey, particularly Erdogan, from the unification of Kurds. If no third country and the international community in general hinder Turkey from carrying out its military operations in Syria taking into account their own interests from those operations the situation will get out of control. Erdogan threatens to enter the territory of Iraq and carry out military operation there. This is really another high level of cynicism resulted by the inaction of the international community that has created an atmosphere of impunity.

Erdogan now is sure that he can do anything and anywhere without facing serious problems, as until now the only "obstacles" for his actions have been some concerns expressed by this or that country or organization. Is the world sure that Turkey is only killing Kurdish militants that it considers to be terrorists? Isn’t it the case that Erdogan is solving much bigger problem for himself – carrying out mass killings of Kurds?

 If the world continues to silently support Erdogan and his actions, without doubt the hands of Turkey will go beyond Syria and Iraq. Solving its problems my force and military means is becoming a behavior for Turkey, which threatens to destabilize the whole region…