Midtown Blogger/Manhattan Valley Follies: Die Welt- Explaining the War Against the Kurds

What Kurds bombed the Turkish military?

The Kurds are a nation of 25 to 30 million people, which does not have their own state, but over several Middle Eastern countries lives - especially in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. In these countries, each with different groups representing the interests of the local Kurdish population. They pursue different political objectives and have different amounts of power. The Kurds, who are bombarded by Turkey since the weekend, belong to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from Turkey and the allies with their Syrian-Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

The bombings have According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in London hit the YPG units in northern Syria, where these Islamic terror against the state militia to fight (IS). These attacks Denies Turkey. It is different with the bombing against the positions of the Turkish PKK. You are in northern Iraq. Because the organization is banned in Turkey, has sought its leadership in the Kurdish compatriots in the neighboring country refuge. Its headquarters in the Iraqi Qandil mountains is now under attack.Unlike the PKK and the YPG the Iraqi Kurds of Turkey are not attacked. You have reached an autonomy status in their country and maintain good relations with Ankara.

And why Ankara bombarded these groups right now?

Officially claimed Ankara, reason for the inserts is the murder of two Turkish police last Wednesday. The PKK had known this and presented the act in retaliation for the bombing of a left, pro-Kurdish Assembly in Suruc on July 20.The officers had cooperated with the terrorist militia IS who had committed the bombing. But from the perspective of the Ankara's PKK for much longer a threat.It is banned in Turkey, the EU and the US lead on their terror lists. Decades fought the banned organization under considerable use of force for their own state, they last campaigned mainly politically for more autonomy in the Kurdish areas in south-eastern Turkey.

A reconciliation with the government in Ankara had made some progress in recent years. But before the parliamentary elections in June Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intensified his anti-Kurdish rhetoric.Nevertheless, the legal Kurdish party HDP moved into Parliament and robbed Erdogan's party an absolute majority. In the peace process with the PKK, the Erdogan said on Tuesday for finished, nothing had moved. Even longer fears Erdogan also the establishment of a Kurdish state in northern Syria, which could promote the independence aspirations of the Kurds in Turkey. Now Erdogan seems to take this opportunity to its actual or perceived enemies to fight in both countries - tolerated by the United States, which welcomed its simultaneous use against the IS.

What the IS to do with the fight against the Kurds?

The Kurdish groups themselves are not related to the IS. On The Contrary. As different as the political orientation of the large Kurdish groups in the countries concerned is, one thing connects them: the opposition to the IS. The Syrian Kurds have long been the only force that fought the IS effect. Many fighters of the PKK helped. Since the IS in June 2014 Iraq vormarschierte and the economic metropolis of Mosul captured, the troops of the Iraqi Kurdistan Autonomous Region to fight on the front line against the Islamists.

Turkey, however, were already frequently accused of connections to the IS. Many Islamists traveling for years through Turkish territory to Syria, as material flow and cash on the Turkish border there. Also benefited from the IS and Turkey tolerated at least.Sometimes there was also clear evidence of a passive or active support by the Turkish secret service. The latest evidence comes from Syria captured IS documents.

Because it fits into the picture that the Islamic Erdogan government refused more than a year to provide even bases for US air strikes against the IS available. That has now changed. US machines allowed to fly to the IS and Turkish organizations with bombs from the Basu in Incirlik. Officially claimed Ankara, prompted the inserts was the bombing of Suruc that the IS did not commit. But critics see another link between the fight against Kurds and Islamists: the West tolerates the crackdown on the Kurds as a reward for the Turkish bombardments against the IS.

Which Kurdish faction has received German weapons?

The Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga and the PUK, which are controlled by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (PDK), are the oldest Kurdish independence movement. They are the Kurdish regional government in Erbil assumed that holds a self-governing territory. The President of the autonomous region of Kurdistan, while commander of the Peshmerga is Massoud Barzani.

During the great offensive of the IS last August, the German government decided to supply weapons to Barzani's troops - in the hope that the militia so that the faith community of Yezidis could protect them from the IS. Ultimately, however, it was not the Peshmerga, but Syrian Kurdish fighters who protected the Yazidis in association with the PKK, Kobani freed and expelled from the IS Tel Abiad.

How to understand the PKK and the Kurds in northern Iraq?

Massoud Barzani and his Kurdistan Democratic Party (PDK) traditionally have a strained relationship with the PKK. Nevertheless supported PKK units the Kurdish-Iraqi peshmerga in the fight against IS. The other major Kurdish party in northern Iraq, Barzani's alliance partner PUK, has a better relationship with the Turkish-Syrian organization. Officially, the Iraqi Kurds have no interest to it, that the PKK receives weapons in their hands, who delivered Germany and other countries of the Peshmerga. But there are some anecdotal reports of German material, which has changed hands in spite of such assurances.