Do you want to fight DAESH or help found a new terrorist state?
Although Turkey is fighting both DAESH and the PYD terrorist groups in the region, Western media tries to manipulate the world as if Turkey's war is against Kurds
DAESH terror has been at the top of the global agenda for several years now. It has perpetrated bloody attacks in the Middle East and Europe.
Turkey, which has a 910-kilometer-long border with Syria, is the country where the organization has carried out the greatest number of attacks and murdered the greatest number of civilians. Ankara has a longer history of fighting DAESH than any other country.
Long before Europe and the U.S. made any moves, Turkey declared DAESH a terrorist organization in a cabinet decree in 2013. As a member of the international anti-DAESH coalition, Turkey decided to carry out a cross-border operation against the organization after it killed a total of 54 civilians during a wedding celebration in Gaziantep, a Turkish city on the border with Syria, last month.
In addition to howitzer shelling in Gaziantep, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which moved toward DAESH targets with the Turkish Armed Forces' (TSK) air and ground support, liberated areas of Syria in a short period of time.
DAESH targets near the Euphrates River in Syrian territory were repelled. During the operation, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), another terrorist organization battling DAESH for territorial dominance in Syria, was pushed back toward its headquarters.
However, some European states and the U.S., who say there are fighting tooth and nail to beat DAESH, criticized Turkey instead of appreciating it for being the only country that has taken the risk of fighting DAESH in a ground offensive.
The criticism is because Turkey also hit elements of the PYD, the Syrian branch of the outlawed PKK, which has been declared a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and the U.S.
There is no reasonable explanation why the West expects Ankara to watch out for the PKK and PYD during anti-DAESH operation even though they carry out terrorist attacks in Turkey and around the world, like DAESH. They expect this despite attacks conducted by the People's Protection Units (YPG), the armed wing of the PYD.
Witnessing this, the region's people naturally think that the EU and the U.S. are not concerned about fighting DAESH, but are instead making room for the PYD in Syria.
The European media's manipulative reporting, saying that the Turkish state kills Syrian Kurds, consolidated this perception.
Given that the PYD is a staff movement that was founded by the PKK and exported to Syria, there is hardly any representation of Syrian Kurds in the organization. This PKK staff used to operate in Turkey in the mid-1990s.
Because of this representation problem, Kurdish groups in Syria and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have put a distance between themselves and the PYD, some even fight it.
The criticism of Ankara's operation against terrorist groups such as DAESH and the PYD, as if it was aimed at the Kurds in the region, both harms the perspective of global terrorism and the trust between different peoples.
The U.S. and some European countries must stop being in denial and fulfil their responsibilities toward Turkey as required by bilateral and multilateral agreements.
Turkey, which has a 910-kilometer-long border with Syria, is the country where the organization has carried out the greatest number of attacks and murdered the greatest number of civilians. Ankara has a longer history of fighting DAESH than any other country.
Long before Europe and the U.S. made any moves, Turkey declared DAESH a terrorist organization in a cabinet decree in 2013. As a member of the international anti-DAESH coalition, Turkey decided to carry out a cross-border operation against the organization after it killed a total of 54 civilians during a wedding celebration in Gaziantep, a Turkish city on the border with Syria, last month.
In addition to howitzer shelling in Gaziantep, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which moved toward DAESH targets with the Turkish Armed Forces' (TSK) air and ground support, liberated areas of Syria in a short period of time.
DAESH targets near the Euphrates River in Syrian territory were repelled. During the operation, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), another terrorist organization battling DAESH for territorial dominance in Syria, was pushed back toward its headquarters.
However, some European states and the U.S., who say there are fighting tooth and nail to beat DAESH, criticized Turkey instead of appreciating it for being the only country that has taken the risk of fighting DAESH in a ground offensive.
The criticism is because Turkey also hit elements of the PYD, the Syrian branch of the outlawed PKK, which has been declared a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and the U.S.
There is no reasonable explanation why the West expects Ankara to watch out for the PKK and PYD during anti-DAESH operation even though they carry out terrorist attacks in Turkey and around the world, like DAESH. They expect this despite attacks conducted by the People's Protection Units (YPG), the armed wing of the PYD.
Witnessing this, the region's people naturally think that the EU and the U.S. are not concerned about fighting DAESH, but are instead making room for the PYD in Syria.
The European media's manipulative reporting, saying that the Turkish state kills Syrian Kurds, consolidated this perception.
Given that the PYD is a staff movement that was founded by the PKK and exported to Syria, there is hardly any representation of Syrian Kurds in the organization. This PKK staff used to operate in Turkey in the mid-1990s.
Because of this representation problem, Kurdish groups in Syria and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have put a distance between themselves and the PYD, some even fight it.
The criticism of Ankara's operation against terrorist groups such as DAESH and the PYD, as if it was aimed at the Kurds in the region, both harms the perspective of global terrorism and the trust between different peoples.
The U.S. and some European countries must stop being in denial and fulfil their responsibilities toward Turkey as required by bilateral and multilateral agreements.