Turkey to Seek Support of World Leaders for its Militant Crackdown

Reuters, 24/09 15:30 CET

By Orhan Coskun

ANKARA, (Reuters) – Turkey’s Prime Minister will tell world leaders next week Ankara can play a key role in stopping a spread of terrorism, including Islamic State, but expected understanding for its own battle against Kurdish militants.

Washington, while considering the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) a terrorist group, sees the affiliated YPG Kurdish militia in Syria as its chief ally in fighting Islamic state there. The link unsettles Turkey and is likely to be raised in more explicit terms by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu when the United Nations General Assembly convenes in New York next week.

NATO member Turkey has opened its air bases to a U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State fighters, but the focus of its own air strikes has been Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants. Fighting has escalated since a truce between the PKK, seeking broader Kurdish rights, and the army broke down in July.

The fighting, in the runup to November elections, has raised suspicions among opponents of President Tayyip Erdogan that the priority is to check Kurdish territorial ambitions rather than to rout the Islamist insurgents. The fighting, which began in 1984, has cost over 40,000 lives. 

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Source: Euronews