Kurds Blame Turkey for Islamic State Violence

On July 23, one Turkish policeman was killed and another was injured in a shooting in Diyarbakir. They were ambushed while investigating a traffic accident. The attack comes one day after two Turkish policemen were killed in Ceylanpinar. The officers were shot in the head and later found in the house that they were sharing.

Both attacks took place in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa, which is near the Syrian border and is a predominately Kurdish area. No one has claimed responsibility for the July 23 shooting. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a designated terrorist organization by the US, EU, and Turkey, claimed responsibility for the July 22 attack, and three suspects have been arrested. The PKK has also been blamed for a separate series of attacks, including shootings and arson, on the Turkish military on July 22. The PKK, or a related Kurdish militant organization, is likely responsible for the July 23 killing as well.

The PKK said that the July 22 killing was in retaliation for the Islamic State’s July 20 suicide bomb attack in Suruc, near the Syrian border. The bombing targeted a group of approximately 300 people from the Socialist Youth Associations Federation, who had gathered before volunteering in Kobane, a Kurdish city on the Syrian side of the border that had been the focus of a number of Islamic State attacks. Initially, officials believed that the bombing was carried out by a young woman, but later reports indicated that a 20-year-old Kurdish man linked to the Islamic State carried out the attack.

Tensions have been rising between the Turkish government and its Kurdish minority. In the hours following the July 20 suicide bombing in Suruc, members of the PKK fought with Turkish police in Adiyaman and one soldier died. Also on July 20, demonstrators blaming the government for the bombing clashed with police at the funerals of those killed in Suruc. They threw fireworks at the police, who responded with water cannons and tear gas.

Turkey often faces international criticism for its treatment of the Kurds, with whom it has fought for decades. Kurdish officials say that the Turkish government allows the Islamic State to operate in Turkey and attack Kurdish targets.

In Turkey’s elections last month, the predominately Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) won 12 percent of the vote, surpassing the 10 percent necessary for a political party to enter Turkey’s parliament. The win for the HDP came at the expense of the ruling Justice Development Party (AKP), which no longer holds a super-majority. The AKP has been consolidating power under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but the Kurds’ rise to prominence in politics suggests that the country is growing tired of the “increasingly authoritarian” AKP rule.

Following the Suruc bombing, Turkey has begun building a wall along its border with Syria to curb the flow of Islamic State militants between the two countries. On July 23, members of the Islamic State clashed with Turkish soldiers along the border, killing one Turkish officer and injuring five soldiers. One Islamic State fighter was also killed. Unconfirmed reports stated that the Turkish army is conducting an operation against the Islamic State. Additionally, Turkey has finally given the US permission to use the Incirlik Air Base in the Adana Province to conduct airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria after months of negotiations.

Turkey is only stepping up to fight the Islamic State under growing pressure from other NATO countries. Turkey has been noticeably unwilling to prevent the organization’s operations, and has been credibly accused of helping to arm Syrian jihadist groups, including Islamic State and Al Qaeda. The Kurds have been most successful in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria, and the Turkish government’s political problems with the Kurds could be solved if the Islamic State successfully defeated them. Fighting in Turkey will probably escalate in the near future, but there is an increasing risk that it will be between different groups: the Turkish military, the Kurdish militias, and the Islamic State, with each group fighting the others.