Peter Boyle
Once again, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is escalating Turkey’s war against Kurds to offset his growing unpopularity.
Şahan Savaş Karataşli, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro explained in an article recently published in Jacobin that behind this was the unravelling of the Erdoğan Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party or AKP) regime’s ability to provide its political base “with direct aid and a wide spectrum of financial quick fixes” as the Turkish economy continues to decline:
“In a highly insecure and exploitative political-economic environment, millions have become reliant not only on direct support and clientelistic redistribution from the AKP government, but also on various ‘financial fixes’ such as mushrooming short-term personal loans, easy-access credit cards, and cash advances to cover rent, food, and other basic needs.
“As Erdoğan insisted on lowering interest rates — citing Islamic law (Nass) as justification — he was facilitating access to short- and medium-term credit, essential not only for capitalist firms but also for the broader public. This was a temporary ‘fix’ to delay and partly mitigate the effects of the deep crisis.
“Yet like a drug addict needing his ‘fix’ in increasingly frequent and potent doses, much of the public became addicted to these financial fixes, along with direct aid from state and local governments, to survive. This strategy inevitably contributed to massive inflation and further raised the cost of living, but together with the sporadic and pragmatic increases in the minimum wage before the election times, it helped the AKP retain power.
“The AKP’s method of navigating the crisis until late 2023 resembled driving downhill in a car with no brakes, where the only semblance of control came from pressing harder on the gas pedal — because using the handbrake would trigger an even greater disaster. After Şimşek and the new economic administration began to “gently” engage the handbrake by tightening monetary policy, thereby preventing wage and pension increases and cutting credit lines, Erdoğan began to face a roiling discontent, as indicated by the results of the 2024 local elections.”
Adding to this pressure is the disruption of Turkey’s trade with Israel as a consequence of the war in Gaza.
Karataşli argues that “a significant factor in the AKP’s loss of power was the controversy over Turkish state enterprises and business circles linked to the AKP continuing to trade with Israel, including selling military-related logistics, during the atrocities in Gaza. This has alienated many in the Muslim population and allowed rival Islamic parties, such as the YRP, to exploit the apparent hypocrisy.”
It is an age-old practice of dictators to use military aggression as a way of creating a scapegoat for their economic problems at home, and in this ugly tradition Erdoğan is ramping up the war on Kurds.
In this latest escalation of the ongoing war, the Turkish armed forces have deployed about 1000 troops and 300 tanks and armoured vehicles in Duhok province in Iraqi Kurdistan.
According to a 7 July statement by the Kurdish National Congress (KNK), local sources report that more than 110 military bases have been established up to 35 kilometres inside Iraqi territory.
“The recent escalation of Turkey’s military presence in Iraqi Kurdistan under the pretext of fighting PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] guerrillas is a blatant violation of Iraqi sovereignty and a threat to regional stability. Turkey’s deployment of tanks, soldiers and checkpoints deep inside Iraqi Kurdish territory is a clear attempt to occupy Iraqi Kurdistan. This will lead to an escalation of the long-term war with regional and global implications.
“The aggressive actions of the Turkish military, including setting up checkpoints, interrogating road users, and emptying villages, demonstrates a de facto occupation of the region that undermines the sovereignty of Iraq and the Kurdish people,” the KNK warned.
According to United States-based human rights organisation Community Peacemaker Teams, Turkey has carried out more than 800 attacks on the Kurdistan Region and Nineveh province this year, resulting in eight civilian deaths.
The Turkish state aims to control the Gara Mountains, according to the KNK. This could result in the loss of 70‒75% of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s territory in Duhok.
The Assyrian Christian village of Miske in Duhok’s Metîna region was almost entirely destroyed by the Turkish military in artillery strikes.
Turkish forces are also building six new military bases in the Zakho region to secure it for the Iraqi-Turkish Development Road project, with the KRG planning to connect their own road megaproject to it, while the Turkish military cites security concerns to justify their increased presence.
There are also indications that incursions extend to the Suleymaniyah (Silêmanî) region, the KNK warned.
A high-level delegation from Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation (MİT), led by Mutlu Tuka, visited Baghdad on 27 June to meet with officials from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), likely part of Turkey’s strategy to pressure the PUK into joining the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) — which runs the KRG — in an alliance with Turkey against the PKK-led Kurdistan freedom movement.
However, the PUK faction in the Iraqi parliament condemned the ongoing violations of the Kurdistan Region and Iraqi sovereignty, citing risks to national security and the safety of citizens. These actions are described as clear violations of international law aimed at disrupting peace and violating Iraqi sovereignty.
Meanwhile, Turkey and its allied jihadist militias continue their attacks on Kurdish-liberated Rojava in North and East Syria. Disturbingly, Erdoğan signalled a major shift in policy towards the Bashar al-Assad dictatorship in Syria in a statement on 28 June, according to Medya News.
“There is no reason not to establish relations with Syria,” Erdoğan declared, in a significant departure from previous confrontational rhetoric.
After breaking off relations with Syria during the civil war in 2011, Turkey has backed various opposition groups against the Damascus-based Assad regime and conducted several cross-border military operations into Syria.
These operations led to the occupation of areas previously populated by Kurds, notably the canton of Afrin, displacing residents and resettling the areas with refugees from Damascus and Idlib province, purportedly to establish a “safe zone” under Turkish control.
Turkey now says it might restore ties with Damascus if Syria made progress in “fighting terrorism”. This suggests that Assad should cooperate with Turkey’s campaign against the Kurds, which is aimed at undoing the autonomous status the Kurds have achieved since they defeated the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria.
In a recent interview with the Kurdish news service ANF, Aldar Xelîl — a member of the Co-Presidency Council of Rojava’s Democratic Union Party (PYD) — explained that the Erdoğan regime “sees its existence in the destruction of the Kurds”.
“They see their existence in the liquidation of the democratic project. According to their logic, if the democratic nation project is implemented here and the Kurdish people get their rights and can live freely like other peoples, it will mean the end of the Turks. Why are they so afraid? Because the establishment of the Republic of Turkey was based on the annihilation of the Kurds.”
Peter Boyle is a well known journalist and political activist living in Sydney, Australia. He is also a correspondent of the Green Left Journal.
