A former Turkish special operations commander, now a popular commentator and analyst on ‘terrorism’ issues, drew an unexpected and rare correlation in a live TV show on Saturday between the Ukrainians fighting against the Russian invasion, and the Kurds fighting against the Turkish forces.
Abdullah Ağar stated that the conflict in Ukraine was likely to turn into guerilla warfare, and said that the Ukrainians, like the Kurds, would have the moral high ground in such a war against Russian troops, as they would be fighting against an invading army.
“No matter how powerful the invading Russian army is, no matter how well armed the soldiers are with lethal weapons and equipment and how well protected by these, they can never have the motivation that the soldiers and the people of Ukraine have. Because they feel that they are the occupiers and the invaders,” Ağar said.
He said he did not expect conventional war to continue in Ukraine, but that the conflict would eventually turn into guerilla warfare.
“What is the basic trend in guerilla warfare? Guerillas can never win a war that they’re involved in. But those who have fought against guerillas have always lost as well,” he continued.
At this point, one of the hosts of the broadcast asked, ‘Why is that?’ while the other host appeared to try and turn the course of the conversation onto safer ground, saying, ‘It’s the same in Afghanistan.’
But Ağar didn’t budge, and said:
“It is not like Afghanistan, my friends. What I mean by lost is… We tend not to see it like this with the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), but the PKK has always used this doctrine against us. I mean, the PKK has confronted us where and when they want, and so they get away. Now what’s the price we’ve paid for this? The price, though there’s been no recent update, is 1.1 trillion dollars.”
He continued:
“Now, what’s the most sensitive issue for Russia? They’ve already started sending back dead bodies to Russia, haven’t they? Now the Russian people are going to start asking questions. They’re going to ask why they’re receiving dead bodies. They’ll ask, ‘Why have we invaded another country? Why has Russia became a rogue state? Why has our leader now become a dictator? And they’re going to start questioning their leader.”
