Kurds with Russia: “Barîkela Tirkîyê!”
COURDS WITH RUSSIA: “BARÎKELA TIRKÎYÊ!”
Barîkela Tirkîyê (Kurd. Bravo, Turkey!)
Syria today is part of the Middle Eastern boiler. Almost torn to pieces like Iraq, but still fighting for its own safety. The equation of the civil war in Syria today is represented by two components: the pro-Syrian and anti-Syrian sides.
1) The pro-Syrian side comes out with the aim of preserving the existing regime of Bashar al-Assad and stabilizing the domestic situation, includes the following elements:
a) Government troops
b) Pro-Syrian coalition of countries (Russia, Iran, also Lebanon, China)
c) Kurds
2) The anti-Syrian side is aiming to overthrow the existing regime of Bashar al-Assad. These include:
a) LIH (it is in Syria that the proclaimed capital of IG Rakka is located)
b) Big anti-Syrian trio (Turkey, Saudi Arabia, USA)
c) Opposition minorities (Sunnis, Christians, Alawites). Despite the fact that B. Asad belongs to the Alawite clan (state structures are “stuffed” by B. Asad’s relatives and his spouse), the Alawites themselves are fighting both on the side of the government forces and against it.
The reasons for the war in Syria are various arguments. A number of experts believe that the civil war in Syria is an ethno-confessional war. In terms of its structure, Syria’s citizens are indeed quite variegated. Regarding the ethnic composition: this is Arabs (86%), and Kurds (8%), and Armenians (2,7%). A small percentage (3,3%) are Turks, Turkmen, Assyrians, Gypsies, Jews, Circassians. The confessional structure is represented by Islamic and Christian groups, with a set of trends and trends of each group. I.A. Chayko, research associate at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the Institute of International Studies of the MGIMO (U) of the Russian Foreign Ministry: “Syrian Kurds are one of the main and most legally oppressed national minorities. They mostly practice Islam, both Shiite and Sunni. For the Kurds, the most significant, compared with a religious or tribal, is their national identity. The rallying factor is the task of ensuring their rights and freedoms in Syrian society. ”
The author's opinion about the “fire” of the war is that the Syrian cauldron did not break out without the participation of pro-Western structures. The motive is the realization of their own geopolitical goals in the Middle East. The civil war began in 2012, the regime was not overthrown for two years (thanks in large part to the strong allies of Russia and Iran), after which a powerful terrorist group called the Islamic State appeared to finally do away with the regime of Bashar Al-Assad (which is why the ISIS is placed in the equation together with the anti-Syrian coalition). The fact that the group failed, became independent and act not according to the plan of the West - is another question. However, one should not exclude that ISIS was created by the USA to eliminate the B. Assad regime. At the same time, Turkey, together with the West, plays in the civil war in Syria not the last role. However, we will return to Turkey later.
The Kurds maintained a neutral position throughout the war. At the same time, the reason for this position is not related to agreement / disagreement with the B. Assad regime. The Kurds have a 200 summer (in many respects sad) experience of the liberation movement: adjoining one of the parties in any war, they literally became “pawns” to achieve the goals of these parties, but not the Kurds. Bitter experience has led to the fact that the Kurds are trying to act as independently as possible. And, I must say, acted and quite successfully until August 2015. What changed? The Kurds said they were ready to join the pro-Syrian side and come out in support of Al-Assad together with Russia and Iran, Bashar’s main allies. What led to a change in the Kurdish perspective? This is a whole chain of actions, closely connected with the policy of Turkey, and more precisely with the weakening of the vertical of power of T. Erdogan.
It all began with the parliamentary elections of the year 07.06.2015. For the first time in 13 (!) Years, President Tayyip Erdogan lost the majority of the votes of the Majlis, and with it the opportunity to implicitly and independently make changes to the constitution (the Turkish president intended to turn Turkey into a presidential republic and expand the range of his powers). Outcome: Erdogan’s status is undermined. The republic in the person of the leader began to look for sources of "enrichment" of its power.
Then there were bureaucratic delays with the “Turkish Stream”, numerous attempts by Turkey to get a discount on gas and the desire to stretch time as much as possible. Hoping to find even more worthy options for cooperation, Turkey did not allow Russia to carry out measuring work in the area of the gas pipeline construction. The result of the ambiguous policy of Turkey - Russia relies on the “Nord Stream-2”, which is several times more profitable. On the benefits of the "SP-2" over the "Turkish", read the article "" Nord Stream-2 "VS" Turkish Stream ": the game of gas pipelines."
Another reason was the impossibility of finding a single position on the civil war in Syria between Turkey and Russia. And here the Kurds played a significant role. In the civil war in Syria, the Kurds achieved considerable success: they established their self-government, created militarized protection of the territories under their control, won part of the territories from IG, received passports that no ethnic minority had before the war in the republic. If the Syrian Kurds receive autonomy as part of Syria, the burning chain will reach the Turkish border, Turkish Kurds, who will receive double support from both Iraqi and Syrian Kurds. And then the autonomy "Turkish Kurdistan" will be close to reality. A nightmare for T. Erdogan. The answer is clear - the presence of the IG in the Middle East eliminates a destabilizing factor for Turkey itself - the Kurdish question. Russia's support for Syria, difficulties with the “Turkish stream”, the non-recognition by Turkey of Crimea as part of Russia — all this inexorably cooled Turkey’s relations with Russia, which played a part in the fact that Erdogan decided to enlist the support of the United States.
The successes of the Syrian Kurds in the struggle against ISIS have become more and more impressive. “A nightmare” by T. Erdogan was close to the thing. Of course, the president could not allow this. And Turkey, together with the United States, launched active bombardments under the banner of the “fight against terrorism”: against the Kurds (A) and the Syrians (B). The classics of the modern geopolitical genre - the official level at odds with the actual.
A) Official level: Turkey fights terrorism (with the PKK, designated as terrorist by Turkey)
De facto: the bombing of the populated areas on the border of Syria and Turkey. This is despite the peace agreements that were achieved with the PKK in 2013. In addition, the success of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Peoples in the elections in Turkey 7.06.2015 of the year (13%, 80 deputy chairs) is largely due to cooling in the Turkish-Kurdish relations against the background of chaos in Syria and the region, says expert Adeksander del Val in Politique Internationale. The BBC channel, citing statements by the Kurdish Democratic Union, writes: “Instead of firing at the positions of terrorists from the Islamic State (IG), Turkish forces fire at the positions of our fighters. We call on the Turkish leadership to stop the aggression and to comply with international norms. ”
The reason for such actions is the opposition to the realization of autonomy of Syrian Kurdistan. The fight against ISIS became for Ankara a cover to weaken the PKK (Workers' Party of Kurdistan), and in the long run to counteract the unification of the controlled areas of Syria.
B) Official level: fighting ISIS
De facto: the bombing of Syrian areas where civilians also live.
Reason: opposition to the breakdown of the Nabucco gas pipeline. An alternative to Nabucco (Iraq-Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan-Turkey, design capacity - 30 billion cubic meters of gas per year) may well be the Islamic Gas Pipeline (Iraq-Iran-Syria, design capacity - 40 billion cubic meters a year)). The Islamic Gas Pipeline is beneficial for Syria, in many respects for Europe, but not for Turkey, which once again endured an energy fiasco in its desire to become the leading Middle Eastern transit country.
Thus, the two combats "against terrorism" realize the two goals of Turkey - the resolution of the Kurdish issue and the implementation of Nabucco. Strikes from Turkey continued. The Kurds needed allies: as strong as the United States for Turkey. And then Russia intervened.
During the European Games in Baku, as the media write, a meeting was held with the representative of Turkey and V. V. Putin. In the process of bilateral communication, the Russian leader conveyed a message to T. Erdogan - multifaceted cooperation with Turkey will be terminated if the latter does not cease supporting the terrorists of the “Islamic State”. Russia made it clear: Moscow is not ready to cooperate with the state, de facto supporting terrorist actors, and officially fighting with ISIS. And once again it proves the wisdom of its geopolitical tactics - not to go against the democratic foundations in order to achieve their regional goals.
And the last link in this chain was the sensational statement of the Syrian Kurds: from now on they are ready to join the pro Syrian side and support the regime of Bashar al-Assad together with Russia. This event can be called a reaction to the latent Turkish and Western bombings of the Syrians and Kurds. The power policies of the two countries not only did not lead to their goal - the so-called "fight against terrorists", but, conversely, strengthened the position of the Al-Assad regime. The Kurds were initially the most important element of the Syrian war, because they had the unity and support of many foreign countries. (humanitarian, militarized). And now, armed with the support of Russia, they will definitely achieve even greater success. Geopolitical game for Turkey failed. Hence the sarcastic title of the article - Turkey stepped on the rake of its own wrong policy. "Bravo, Turkey!"
Let's sum up. A change in the composition of the coalition can be called success for Russia - in recent years, it has called on foreign countries to support the Al-Assad regime, but this was not possible: the world depends on the opinion of the West. And the support of a large Kurdish ethnos will certainly lead to a change not only in the interim results in the civil war in Syria, but also in possible global Middle East changes and a reorientation of Russia's position towards Turkey.
Considering the changes in the civil war in Syria through the prism of the Kurdish role, it is important to note the following: the Kurds must remember their experience of the liberation movement and learn to maneuver between common goals and national ones - between the unquestioning fight against terrorism and ensuring their democratic rights as the largest, devoid of statehood, ethnicity .
The Russian position on the situation in Syria today is manifested in the initiative that Sergei Lavrov presented - Russia is in favor of a single coalition in the fight against ISIL. According to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the coalition should include both government troops, countries fighting for ISIL, Kurdish armed forces, Iraqi Kurds, and the Iraqi army, etc. In the fight against one enemy, all the fighting parties should be united. No double standards.
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