DM Monitoring
ANKARA: A joint Turkish-Iraqi operation in the region would also disturb Iran, the U.S., which supports the YPG in Syria, and Europe, to a smaller extent, according to Tomar. The U.S. insists that it does not aim for the formation of a YPG-led state in northern Syria, but Washington has failed to convince Turkey about this, according to the country’s former special envoy for Syria James Jeffrey, who recently claimed that establishment of such a state would not benefit the U.S. nor Russia.
But the U.S. continues to be one of the biggest supporters of the YPG despite evidence proving its direct links with the PKK, according to professor Hüseyin Bağcı, who is also the president of Ankara-based Foreign Policy Institute.
Turkish officials have criticized Washington for refusing to acknowledge Turkey’s legitimate security concerns, as YPG terrorists continue to pose a threat to the country’s national security. “The PKK and YPG are like two sides of the same coin,” Bağcı said, as he argued that although an operation in Sinjar was possible, its results fully depend on Iraq’s sincerity and cooperation. “Iraq always plays a double game. There might be a limited operation, but a limited operation would lead to limited results and limited success,” Bağcı added.
For him, the complete elimination of PKK and Daesh elements from the region would only fully succeed if all NATO members waged a determined fight against the terrorists, but such pursuit seems highly unlikely, at least for the time being. “We will see how sincere Iraq is regarding the matter,” Bağcı said, adding that the complete destruction of PKK headquarters in Qandil and Sinjar regions would only be possible if Iraq authorized Turkey to do so, but this does not seem viable as he claimed the KRG administration’s “sincerity is questionable.”
The KRG and PKK have had an on-and-off relationship, as the former had enforced a unilateral economic blockade against the YPG-led administration. Their relations seemed to have improved slightly following Turkey’s cross-border anti-terror operations in northern Syria. While the KRG had previously called PKK’s presence in Sinjar “unacceptable” and urged terrorists to leave the area, the administration also sent medical aid to the YPG in northern Syria at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Although there is no magic wand to eliminate the PKK and its offshoots from the region, Acun says it looks like the terrorist group will lose its scope of power in Iraq to a great extent by next year.
