Turkey inviting disaster by backing Daesh: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Eric Draitser, the founder of stopimperialism.com in New York, to discuss the latest developments in Turkey.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: What is going on in Turkey? There are many that say that all of a sudden the PKK has just started attacking Ankara again, but others are saying that it is all being initiated by Ankara in order to get this type of response, in order to have this emergency-type situation on the ground in Turkey actually to help another government by the current government, which could not form a coalition, because now they have to have another election. How do you see overall Eric? Thanks so much for being with us.

Draitser: Well, I think it is a number of factors as you indicated.

I think first and foremost using the pretext of the destabilization of Syria and the terrorism that has emerged from there as a means for Turkey to exert military influence and military dominance in the region.

Moreover, Turkey has been providing military aid and has actually made a number of military incursions into Syria going back to 2012, and so the war against so-called ISIS and the war now against the PKK are really just pretext for Turkey to be able to justify and to legitimize the military aggression that they have been waging now for a number of years.

I think it is quite correct also to look at the political domestic situation in Turkey and to see that the Kurdish question, the conflict with the Kurds, is also a very effective means of political legitimization for Ankara, for President Erdogan. Remember that Erdogan not only was not able to form a government, Erdogan has run into very serious opposition within his own government and within Turkey, broadly speaking, with regard to his policy in Syria.

It is important to note that what Turkey is doing in Syria and what Turkey is doing in the region is not simply intervening; they are not simply trying to bring regime change only to Syria; they are to expand Turkish influence and Turkish hegemony in sort of a neo-Ottoman strategy all throughout the Middle East and actually spreading across Central Asia to the western edges of China and Xinjiang Province.

And I think that broad perspective is what we need to maintain when examining what Turkey is doing. So, when they foment these conflicts with the Kurds and they bomb Kurds and they blame Kurds for terrorist actions, what they are actually doing is fanning the flames of this conflict in order to justify and legitimize their further military expansion.

Press TV: Let’s look at that, what you’ve just said. Then how likely is all of this to backfire on Turkey itself?

Draitser: Well, it depends on how you view what Turkey’s real aims are. On the one hand, there is a belief among many policy analysts and political observers that the fanning the flames of war with the Kurds can rile up own Turkey’s own Kurdish minority, that it could create domestic instability; on the other hand, there are some who believe that it actually benefits Erdogan and benefits Turkey because they are able to consolidate their political power within Turkey proper and so-called rally around the government in this conflict with the Kurds.

I think that is how Erdogan is interpreting this. Now, the ultimate blowback scenario – I guess it’s what you are referring to – would have to do with a collapsed state in Syria, ISIS spreading its wings beyond Syria, beyond Iraq, and actually creating a problem for Turkey. Remember, Turkey has been the main backer of ISIS in the war against Syria. ISIS, ISIL, Daesh, whatever it is to be called, Turkey has been backing them; they have been providing air support in Idlib; they have been providing air support and on-the-ground support in Hasakah Province and throughout the country in fact.

So, when Turkey does this, they are inviting a potential catastrophe for themselves. I think the question, though, is ‘does Erdogan view a potential benefit as outweighing that cost?’ Seems like he does.

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