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Turkey too rough-handed against legitimate Kurdish parties: Analyst

Turkish police and firefighters are near a damaged police headquarters after a car bomb killed eight Turkish police officers and injured 45 people in Cizre, southeastern Turkey on August 26, 2016. (AFP photo)

Press TV has interviewed Bill Jones, with the Executive Intelligence Review from Leesburg, about the impact of a recent car bomb attack in Turkey's southeastern province of Sirnak on Turkish policies towards the Kurds.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Where will this bombing in the town of Jizra lead the already convoluted situation between Ankara and the Kurds in the southeast?

Jones: Well, obviously Turkey is faced with a two-pronged attack here. They have their traditional problem with the Kurds and Kurdish terrorism in the country particular parts of the southwest, but more specifically now they’ve also been attacked by ISIL or Daesh. So that they have two-pronged strategy, they have to deal with and are dealing with these two threats. I don’t think because the government has taken position that they would now join in the war against terror, against the ISIL extremists also in Syria, I don’t think they’re going to drop by any means their concern with the PKK. And the attacks, I think, they will proceed as strongly against this act as they would at any other time, but they’ve got a very difficult…  because they now have a two-pronged enemy that they have to deal with.

Press TV: And many observers and critiques of Turkey stated that this approach that Ankara is advocating towards both the Kurds and the Daesh in Syria along its border will further threaten the security of Turkey. Do you see that as well?

Jones: Well, I think the security of Turkey is already threatened. I think they have taken steps to make Turkey more secure. Turkey was very unsecure when they had a near fight with Russia that has been resolved. They’re also trying to man bridges with the US. So, in one sense their geo-strategic situation today is probably better than it was like one month ago. However, all the nations including Turkey are threatened by Daesh, which is why you have something of a coalition among different parties to deal with that.

On the Kurdish issue this is solely a Turkish problem in terms of the internal situation and while they’re not interested in allowing the fighting in Syria to lead to the establishment of a Turkish state something that I don’t think any of its allies have supported at this point. They have to find a way of dealing with their own internal population. I think they’ve been a little bit too rough-handed in terms of the political measures taken against the legitimate Kurdish parties in Turkey. And I would hope and I would think it would be necessary to have some kind of a change so that the Kurds who are living in Turkey feel themselves as a part of the Turkish state. Right now they don’t. And Turkey’s only response at the moment is to react to it militarily. 

 


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