In the past week, a new development in the Kurdistan conflict has begun. Feeling threatened by the growing number of armed Kurdish fighters in Syria, Turkish troops have crossed the border into the neighboring Syrian territory around Afrin. This operation is an extension of Turkey’s suppression of the Kurdistan movements in its own southern territory. The Turkish military’s crossing over the Syrian border is significant, though, as this border area has historically been an area of conflict between Turkey and Syria in the past. Thus it is understandable why Syria threatened military action if Turkey were to invade. At the present, however Syria’s decentralized government doesn’t have control of the region, and most likely see Turkey’s operation as beneficial to suppressing the Kurds and regaining control over their northern territory. This would explain why Syria hasn’t acted on any of its military threats; they may really want Turkey’s help suppressing the Kurds, despite the increased Turkish influence it may bring.<\/p>\n
More recently Turkey has been threatening to extend its operations to the city of Manbij, a Kurdish stronghold where many American militants are stationed. The US has been in support of the Kurdish movement and have had troops in the region for years, however it is rather unclear whether supporting the Kurds is the main focus rather than guarding against Iranian influence or suppressing ISIS. Regardless, a Turkish bombardment of Manbij could escalate tensions between fellow NATO members, the US and Turkey, which would certainly not be beneficial to the stability of the region. The Kurdistan movement began as a peaceful one, so its escalation to a violent campaign should be avoided as far as possible. Conflict in Syria was just starting to decline with the weakening of ISIS and the partial reunification of the country, but the Kurdistan movement is a dangerous threat to any newfound stability. While the idea of a free Kurdistan is certainly an admirable one, there are so many governments adamantly opposed to it that it may be an unrealistic expectation for anytime soon.<\/p>\n
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In the past week, a new development in the Kurdistan conflict has begun. Feeling threatened by the growing number of armed Kurdish fighters in Syria, Turkish troops have crossed the border into the neighboring Syrian territory around Afrin. This operation is an extension of Turkey’s suppression of the Kurdistan movements in its own southern territory. The Turkish military’s crossing over… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1321"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1324,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321\/revisions\/1324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}