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| Turkish Airstrike Hits Kurds, Complicating Fight Against Islamic State | Turkish Airstrike Hits Kurds, Complicating Fight Against Islamic State |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| ISTANBUL — In the face of increasing international pressure, Turkey took decisive military action on Monday — not against the Islamic State militants that Turkey’s Western allies have urged it to fight, but rather against the Kurdish militant group that has been battling the Islamic State. | |
| Turkish warplanes struck positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the P.K.K., in southeastern Turkey late Monday. The group, long an enemy of the Turkish state, had put down its weapons last year to talk peace. But on Tuesday, Turkish officials said the Kurdish militants had attacked a military outpost, leading to the government’s first airstrikes against the group in nearly two years. | Turkish warplanes struck positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the P.K.K., in southeastern Turkey late Monday. The group, long an enemy of the Turkish state, had put down its weapons last year to talk peace. But on Tuesday, Turkish officials said the Kurdish militants had attacked a military outpost, leading to the government’s first airstrikes against the group in nearly two years. |
| The military action immediately reverberated well beyond Turkey’s borders because it is an offshoot of the P.K.K. that is struggling to defend the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobani, which has been besieged by Islamic State for weeks. | The military action immediately reverberated well beyond Turkey’s borders because it is an offshoot of the P.K.K. that is struggling to defend the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobani, which has been besieged by Islamic State for weeks. |
| As that battle has played out under the watch of news organizations, their cameras just across the border in Turkey, it has become a flash point for international criticism of Turkey’s unwillingness to take a bigger role in fighting Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. | |
| But Turkey’s actions against the Kurds and its refusal to allow the P.K.K. to shuttle reinforcements through Turkish territory to fight ISIS have led most analysts to this conclusion: that Turkey’s leaders see the battle for Kobani mostly as a chance to let two of its enemies duke it out, rather than as a cause for alarm. | But Turkey’s actions against the Kurds and its refusal to allow the P.K.K. to shuttle reinforcements through Turkish territory to fight ISIS have led most analysts to this conclusion: that Turkey’s leaders see the battle for Kobani mostly as a chance to let two of its enemies duke it out, rather than as a cause for alarm. |
| “It’s a consistent approach to the conflict,” said Aaron Stein, a Turkey expert and a fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based research organization. “And I think they are happy to have them kill each other.” | “It’s a consistent approach to the conflict,” said Aaron Stein, a Turkey expert and a fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based research organization. “And I think they are happy to have them kill each other.” |
| Turkey’s posture is one piece of what has become a tangled web of alliances and conflicting goals among the many countries who want to see Islamic State eradicated. The United States, for instance, has found itself sharing the battlefield in Iraq with Iranian-backed Shiite militias that once killed American soldiers. In Syria, though, the United States and Iran diverge, as Iran is a stalwart ally of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, while the United States would prefer to see Mr. Assad leave power. | Turkey’s posture is one piece of what has become a tangled web of alliances and conflicting goals among the many countries who want to see Islamic State eradicated. The United States, for instance, has found itself sharing the battlefield in Iraq with Iranian-backed Shiite militias that once killed American soldiers. In Syria, though, the United States and Iran diverge, as Iran is a stalwart ally of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, while the United States would prefer to see Mr. Assad leave power. |
| That dynamic of twisted allegiances has been starkly on display in the fight for Kobani, too. While Turkey took military action against the P.K.K., the United States ramped up its bombing runs over Kobani, in support of the P.K.K.’s Syrian splinter group, the Democratic Union Party, or P.Y.D. — even though the United States and its European allies have listed the P.K.K. as a terrorist group. | |
| For his part, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has insisted that ISIS and the P.K.K. pose the same threat and must both be confronted. | For his part, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has insisted that ISIS and the P.K.K. pose the same threat and must both be confronted. |
| “Hey world, when a terrorist organization like ISIS emerges, you all speak out, but why don’t you speak out against the P.K.K. as a terrorist organization?” Mr. Erdogan said recently. “Why don’t you call for a joint fight against them?” | “Hey world, when a terrorist organization like ISIS emerges, you all speak out, but why don’t you speak out against the P.K.K. as a terrorist organization?” Mr. Erdogan said recently. “Why don’t you call for a joint fight against them?” |
| Further complicating the picture, Turkey not only wants to extinguish Kurdish ambitions of autonomy, it also wants the international coalition to fight not just ISIS, but Mr. Assad’s government. | Further complicating the picture, Turkey not only wants to extinguish Kurdish ambitions of autonomy, it also wants the international coalition to fight not just ISIS, but Mr. Assad’s government. |
| “Turkey is against both ISIS and Assad,” the Turkish prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said Tuesday. | “Turkey is against both ISIS and Assad,” the Turkish prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said Tuesday. |
| It may be clear, then, who Turkey’s enemies are, but it is far from clear what its strategy is to face them. | It may be clear, then, who Turkey’s enemies are, but it is far from clear what its strategy is to face them. |
| “Frankly, it doesn’t seem like Turkey has a strategy,” Mr. Stein said, adding that the decision to strike the P.K.K. at this moment was “politically tone-deaf,” even if the government was provoked by the group. | “Frankly, it doesn’t seem like Turkey has a strategy,” Mr. Stein said, adding that the decision to strike the P.K.K. at this moment was “politically tone-deaf,” even if the government was provoked by the group. |
| The peace process between Turkey and the P.K.K. brought a halt to a three-decade-long fight that cost more than 40,000 lives. But the strikes on Monday added to a sense that the détente was now at risk, coming after a week in which violent street protests in response to the Turkish government’s inaction on Kobani had left more than 30 people dead in Turkey’s Kurdish region. | The peace process between Turkey and the P.K.K. brought a halt to a three-decade-long fight that cost more than 40,000 lives. But the strikes on Monday added to a sense that the détente was now at risk, coming after a week in which violent street protests in response to the Turkish government’s inaction on Kobani had left more than 30 people dead in Turkey’s Kurdish region. |
| Mr. Davutoglu on Tuesday sought to separate the situation in Kobani from Turkey’s efforts to make peace with Kurds in Turkey. | Mr. Davutoglu on Tuesday sought to separate the situation in Kobani from Turkey’s efforts to make peace with Kurds in Turkey. |
| “I’m telling those who try to build a relationship between Kobani and the peace process — these two are different from each other,” Mr. Davutoglu said. “The peace process was there before Kobani, and saying so doesn’t mean that we do not think of Kobani as important.” | |
| Coming as it did while Turkey is under pressure by the United States to do more against ISIS, the military action against the P.K.K. represented, intentional or not, a pointed message to its Western ally. | Coming as it did while Turkey is under pressure by the United States to do more against ISIS, the military action against the P.K.K. represented, intentional or not, a pointed message to its Western ally. |
| “Airstrikes were not only a strong message to the P.K.K. but also to the United States, saying, ‘I maintain my bargaining position in terms of what needs to be done in Syria,’ ” said Cengiz Candar, a columnist and expert on Turkey’s conflict with the Kurds. “It also legitimized not siding with the P.Y.D.” | |
| But the message Kurdish leaders are taking is that Turkey is happy to see them die on the streets of Kobani. | But the message Kurdish leaders are taking is that Turkey is happy to see them die on the streets of Kobani. |
| “It is not two terrorist groups fighting against each other,” said Idris Nassan, a spokesman for the fledgling Kurdish local government in Kobani. “Terrorist groups are attacking civilians. The Turkish government must change its attitude.” | “It is not two terrorist groups fighting against each other,” said Idris Nassan, a spokesman for the fledgling Kurdish local government in Kobani. “Terrorist groups are attacking civilians. The Turkish government must change its attitude.” |
| Both sides in the Kobani battle have suffered heavy losses. Kurdish activists say that their side is losing roughly 10 fighters a day, with the casualties obscured by the fact that most of the dead are not ferried across the border to Turkey. In a measure of the rising toll, six Kurdish fighters were buried in the Turkish town of Suruc on Tuesday, the highest number in at least a week. | Both sides in the Kobani battle have suffered heavy losses. Kurdish activists say that their side is losing roughly 10 fighters a day, with the casualties obscured by the fact that most of the dead are not ferried across the border to Turkey. In a measure of the rising toll, six Kurdish fighters were buried in the Turkish town of Suruc on Tuesday, the highest number in at least a week. |
| At the same time, Kurdish fighters claim to have killed hundreds of Islamic State militants during intensifying clashes over the past week. | At the same time, Kurdish fighters claim to have killed hundreds of Islamic State militants during intensifying clashes over the past week. |
| The claim was impossible to verify. But witnesses in Raqqa, the Syrian province that serves as the Islamic State group’s de facto capital, said that the bodies of dozens of ISIS fighters had arrived in the province from Kobani in the past few days. | The claim was impossible to verify. But witnesses in Raqqa, the Syrian province that serves as the Islamic State group’s de facto capital, said that the bodies of dozens of ISIS fighters had arrived in the province from Kobani in the past few days. |