One of the most striking manifestations of the ‘uncertainty’ result in the 7 June 2015 elections emerged in Northern Syria.
Understanding that Turkey will return to its own internal agenda/politics for an indefinite period due to the ballot box results prompted the PKK/YPG terrorist organization to take action in northern Syria.
The organization, which started to advance on the field on June 8, occupied the area between Tel Abyad and Rasuleyn, opposite the Turkish border, and took the region we know as the east of the Euphrates under its full control.
In other words, the map of Northeast Syria has become monochromatic.
Everyone’s mind in Turkey, “I wonder if a government can be formed?” These took place at a time when he was busy with questions such as “Who will take part in this government if it can be established?”
The reason why such an important development was not on the agenda in Turkey, and even the public was unaware of these developments, was as follows:
The fact that we are buried in the agenda of uncertainty in domestic politics.
ARE THERE SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS AGAIN IN NORTH SYRIA BEFORE THE ELECTION?
In the following periods, Ankara achieved significant gains with a determined and smart security policy against the PKK/YPG belt project in northern Syria.
The region I mentioned, namely the Rusuleyn/Tel Abyad area, was liberated from the organization with the Peace Spring operation carried out in October 2019.
I gave the first example to explain what situations might arise if distractions or political instability looms.
Now we are going to a critical election again and there are signs that some dynamics are trying to turn Turkey’s focus on the election agenda into an opportunity.
There have been interesting news from the region since the beginning of March.
In the first days of the month, US Chief of Staff Mark Milley traveled to northeastern Syria to meet with YPG leaders.
Thereupon, US Ambassador to Ankara Jeff Flake was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Mark Milley, who remained silent about the trip for quite some time, said that the purpose of his visit was to check the task forces.
However, there was no convincing explanation for his talks with the YPG members in that statement.
After the US Chief of Staff, General Michael Kurilla, Commander of CENTCOM, made a visit to the same region.
After these remarkable high-level visits, very striking news came from Dohuk, in northern Iraq, last Wednesday.
7 organization members died as a result of the crash of a Eurocopkter AS350 type helicopter, which included PKK/YPG members.
Upon this mysterious development, questions like these immediately came to mind:
-Since the PKK does not have a helicopter, who did that helicopter throw?
-What kind of job description did the PKK/YPG members in the helicopter have?
According to the information received, the helicopter that crashed was on the move from Hasaka, one of the YPG headquarters in Northeast Syria, to Sulaymaniyah, Iraq.
Two days later, the YPG made a statement acknowledging that those killed in the accident were its own militants. It was even understood that one of the dead was Shervan Kobani, the nephew of the organization’s Syrian leader Mazloum Kobani, and the others belonged to the YPG’s so-called special forces unit, YAT.
DUE TO ELECTIONAL AGENDA, VITAL SECURITY ISSUES SHOULD NOT BE IGNORED
Turkey, which has been fighting against the PKK/YPG since the summer of 2015, has significantly minimized the threats to the country.
The de facto safe zones created in Northern Iraq with the latest Claw/Lock operation have been added to the safe zones created by the operations in Syria.
It is very clear that the PKK and the foreign powers behind it have not strayed from their goal of somehow transferring the actual situation in Syria and Iraq to Turkish territory.
In fact, this is their main strategic goal for the future.
For them, the way to this is through factors such as Turkey’s sinking into political instability, weak governments coming to power, and the country’s lack of focus on security concerns due to internal turmoil.
Let’s note the following words of HDP’s Sezai Temelli:
“The day we overthrow this government will be a beginning, not an end. HDP will lead the construction of the next process”
The HDP and the PKK, the armed organization it leans on, see these elections as a window of opportunity in which Turkey has lost its anti-terrorist perspective and its gains have been wasted.
The strategic goal of their orientation towards the alliance with the 6-table is that the movement they represent will establish sovereignty in the East and Southeast, just as it did in Iraq and Syria.
