Ferda Çetin
“US-Turkey relations covers a broad framework of issues, ranging from the European Union and Israel relations, Mediterranean-Cyprus issue and which also includes of course, the Kurds.
Whether Turkey will continue to violate the rights of sovereignty of other states or not, which turned into the main foreign policy for Turkey during the Trump administration, will determine the nature of the new US-Turkey relations under Biden administration,” writes Ferda Çetin for Yeni Özgür Politika.
During the Trump administration Turkey literally acted the way in which it wanted, but now Turkey feels uncomfortable, because it can not maintain this kind of a relationship with the new Biden administration.
On the other hand, the victory of Joe Biden has created an optimistic atmosphere among the Kurds, even though it is still not clear how the Biden administration will continue its relations with Turkey. In his speech at the Senate, Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, called Turkey a “so-called ally” and has still not visited his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.
The judicial reform and new constitution calls of President Erdoğan, the discourse to rebuild relations with the European Union, as well as attempts trying to reduce the current tensions with the US and Israel, are all political expressions of uneasiness for Turkey.
In an interview with The New York Times in December 2019, Joe Biden criticised the policies of the Turkish president towards the Kurds and shared his support for the opposition against Erdogan’s autocratic style, and military cooperation with Russia. ‘’What I think we should be doing is taking a very different attitude towards him now, making it clear that we support opposition leaders,” Biden said. “He has to pay a price.”
Biden also stressed that Washington should embolden Turkish opposition leaders “to be able to take on and defeat Erdoğan. Not by a coup, not by a coup, but by an electoral process.”
During the Trump administration of 2016-2020, US-Turkey relations was taken to a level, which is hard to be achieved one more time in the rest of the history. As a result of the military operations supported by Trump administration, Turkish forces took control of Rojava the northern Syria, Libya and conducted its expansionist policy in Karabakh. Trump-Erdogan marriage served in favor of Turkey which was the breaking point for EU relations.
However, later on Turkey has opted for Russian military S-400 missile defense system over its US equivalent after Turkey was removed from the F-35 fighter jet programme.
US-Turkey relations covers a broad framework of issues, ranging from the European Union and Israel relations, Mediterranean-Cyprus issue and which also includes of course, the Kurds. Whether Turkey will continue to violate the rights of sovereignty of other states or not, which turned into the main foreign policy for Turkey during the Trump administration, will determine the nature of the new US-Turkey relations under Biden administration
If Turkey’s annhilation policies towards the Kurdish people, Rojava and South Kurdistan remains off the agenda, Turkey will be open and ready to give any kind of concessions to the EU and US, but it will not open”a new page” for Turkish relations with the EU and US.
Turkey has trained jihadist and salafist groups such as Al Qaeda for the war in Syria and Iraq.
Will Turkey maintain its relations with Al-Nusra and ISIS gangs which became a part of the Turkish military since 2014?
What will be the fate of the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian National Army? Will the Turkish state be able to use these gangs in Kurdistan, as they have done in Libya and Karabakh, just like it did in the era of Donald Trump?
The fate of hundreds of thousands of Kurds expelled from their lands will also be an expression of establishing “new”relations with the US.
If the establishment of a “Turkish/ISIS belt” goes ahead under the name of so-called “Security Zones” to accommodate one to three million refugees, this will be the reason of a new genocide of the Kurds.
The situation of hundreds of thousands of Kurds, who were displaced from their lands with the occupation of Efrîn (Afrin), Serekaniye (Ras al-Ayn) and Girê Spî (Tell Abyad) is similar to that of Sephardic Jews who were displaced from Spain in 1492.
One difference is that the exile of Sephardic Jews took place with the “Alhambra Document” signed by Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand. The expulsion of the Kurds in Rojava from their own lands is being realised by legitimising the implied-secret agreements of the UN, the US, Russia, the EU and Turkey.
Unless “new relations” with the US and the EU do not push Turkey to end its occupation in Kurdistan, the relations can not be named as new in any way. If the US and the EU continue to support Turkish military attacks as well, we can not talk about new relations being formed with Turkey.
We must oppose and do not let Kurds and Kurdistan become a part of a bargaining issue for the so-called new US-Turkey and EU-Turkey relations.
The major plan for the Kurds to depend on is their own organised struggle based on self-determination against the existing powers and the interest of the states in the region.
Kurds will only be included in the political solution process to the extent of their own organised power and struggle. Expecting honesty or alliance from the powerful actors, without being aware of their own power, would be a weakness for Kurds.
Therefore, rather than waiting for the parliaments, political parties, trade unions, municipalities, or results of US-Turkey relations, Kurds must seek international solidarity, gain international friends as well as new Kurdish friends to support the Kurdish struggle.
Although there are parties, associations, assemblies, hundreds of institutions and organisations around the world that will give a shoulder to the Kurdish struggle for freedom, Kurds must know that there is no easy and cheap solution for their problems.
