There is an attempt to establish a Democratic Union Party (PYD)-People's Protection Units (YPG) state that extends along the Turkish border in north Syrian territory.
The PYD is the Syrian wing of the PKK that conducts terrorist activities in Turkey. The YPG, the armed wing of the organization, which was founded by command of the PKK's imprisoned leader, Abdullah Öcalan, in 2003, emerged in 2011.
Just like the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), the Iranian arm of the PKK, the PYD-YPG is acting under Öcalan's leadership. The organization shares the same ammunition as the PKK and uses the same human resource, and its ultimate goal is to establish an independent state covering Turkish, Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian territories.
However, the demographical structure in the area where they operate is not suitable for actualizing these ideals, nor do the Kurds, whom they claim to be their base, lean toward this.
For this reason, the PKK is resorting to acts of violence in all the countries where it operates.
The organization has killed tens of thousands of civilians in Turkey alone.The organization's main sources of income are drugs and human trafficking, tributes, arms trade, etc.
Naturally, the organization is on the list of states' terrorist organizations for this structure. Amnesty International registered this for the YPG as well in a report issued on Oct. 13, 2015. It cited all of the PYD-YPG's war crimes one by one, including using child soldiers, forcing Arabs and Turkmens in northern Syria to migrate, killing civilians and harming settlements.
The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation confirmed in a report on July 20, 2016, "The YPG is the Syrian wing of the PKK."
The U.S National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) clearly outlined the organic tie between the PYD-YPG and the PKK in its counterterrorism calendar for 2013.
Interestingly enough, however, the same NCTC did not use these expressions in the following years. I guess the reason was to relieve Washington, which recently had to shelter behind the excuse that "we are temporarily using the YPG against Daesh" these days.
These are some of the reasons for Turkey's objection to the PKK-YPG state, which they are attempting to establish in northern Syria.
As opposed to media claims that the intelligence services that use the PKK and its affiliates for their goals in the region, Ankara is not Kurdophobic.
Moreover, Turkey is the only country in this region where such a large Kurdish population lives on free and equal terms. Kurdish citizens have reached the highest echelons, including the presidency so far and are among the most active players in the economic and cultural life of the country. Some discriminatory practices, especially regarding language, which the Republican regime put into practice in the past, became a thing of the past in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) era.
Another piece of evidence illustrating that Ankara's sensitivity is not toward the organization of Kurds in the region, but to the strengthening of the PKK, are the good relations between Turkey and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq.
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani lived with a Turkish passport for many years. Today, there is close economic and political cooperation between the federal Kurdish administration and Ankara.
The U.S., and especially European public opinion, which have been frequently tested by terrorism in recent years, should now see that Turkey's struggle with the PKK-YPG is manipulated for the sake of periodic actions of the states.
Otherwise, as long as this double standard continues, it is clear that global terror cannot be prevented and no capital in the world will be safe for anyone.