Conflict with Kurds in Turkey complicates fight against ISIS in Syria, Iraq

A Turkish parliamentary committee began debate Thursday on a proposal by the ruling party to revoke immunity for lawmakers. If eventually approved, the measure will allow the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to bring terrorism charges against pro-Kurdish legislators accused of having links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

“We regard this as a measure that aims to destroy the people’s will,” lawmaker Idris Baluken of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) said during the committee meeting.

But the move also highlights conflicts in the wider battle against terror plaguing the Middle East. In Syria, Kurdish fighters with the People’s Protection Units (YPG) have proved helpful to international allies in the battle against Islamic State (ISIS). But Turkey views the YPG as an extension of the PKK, a Kurdish separatist group accused of terror attacks in Turkey.

The end of a two-year peace deal between the PKK and the Turkish government has led to heightened violence in Turkey’s southeast. The renewed fighting has killed hundreds and displaced tens of thousands of people.

The conflict is unlikely to create a vacuum that will give ISIS a foothold in Turkey, but it is undermining the battle against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, said Kadir Yildrim, a research scholar at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

“I think it might complicate things in particular for Turkey and the coalition against ISIS because the priority for the Turkish government has never been ISIS,” Yildrim said. “It’s always been the Kurdish movement.”

The HDP, which staunchly promotes the right of Kurds and other minority groups, has denied any political alliance with the PKK. But opposition to the party’s association with the PKK flared when its members failed to sign a parliamentary condemnation of a Feb. 17 car bomb attack claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, an offshoot of the PKK. The bombing killed 25 military officers and four civilians. The HDP’s leaders, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, still face possible persecution for statements made last year in support of calls for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey.

The HDP has asked the government to cease security operations in the southeast and resume peace efforts. But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dismissed the possibility of peace talks, vowing to annihilate the separatist group instead.

“The PKK is clearly losing ground,” the president’s adviser, Ilnur Cevik, told Bloomberg. “Erdogan is determined to continue weeding out the PKK everywhere in Turkey and finishing off the PKK once and for all.”

While the PKK’s violence escalates and worsens conditions for the Kurds in Turkey, Mehmet Kaya of Turkey’s Tigris Communal Research Center told Bloomberg a peaceful solution is key and forcing pro-Kurdish lawmakers out of parliament is anything but peaceful.

“The government’s attempt to force elected Kurdish lawmakers out of the parliament will only worsen the violence, as it is virtually sidelining politicians who are seeking a peaceful solution,” Kaya said. “That is fueling Kurds’ anger against the AK Party more than they resent the PKK for bringing the war to their doorsteps.”