Syrian Kurds in 'Serious Danger' from Fallout of Ankara Bomb Attack
The Turkish government may seek to use the terrorist attack in Ankara on Sunday to bolster its influence over the Geneva peace negotiations on Syria, Wladimir van Wilgenburg told Sputnik.
It will be hard for the Turkish government to respond to the bomb attack that took place in Ankara on Sunday by stepping up its attacks on the Kurds in southeast Turkey because the level of conflict is already high, expert in Kurdish affairs Wladimir van Wilgenburg told Radio Sputnik.
"I think the operations will continue and the clashes will continue between the PKK and the Turkish armed forces, but they might try to use it to put more pressure on America not to work with the Kurds in Syria," van Wilgenburg said.
The Turkish armed forces are reportedly setting up what they call security zones close to the border with Syria, but Ankara is unlikely to take any further action unless it has the support of the international community, he said.
"I've seen so far that Ankara is building a wall on the Turkish border because they want to stop Kurds crossing the border from Syria into Turkey, but I don't think this will push them for a safe zone because Turkey will not do anything if they don't have support from the US or NATO."
The Turkish government is likely to use the bombing in Ankara on Sunday to try and undermine the Kurds in Syria, but Turkey already has significant influence over the Geneva peace negotiations between the Syrian government and opposition groups, van Wilgenburg explained
"They will probably try to use it even more to delegitimize the Kurds in Syria and maybe try to link it to the Kurds in Syria but I think in general they already have a very high influence over the Geneva talks because most of the Syrian opposition is hosted in Turkey."
It is not certain who is responsible for the attack on Sunday, but it could result in more violence from Turkish security forces and terrorist groups including Daesh, which has a presence in Turkey and has carried out bombings there in the past, he said.
"We don't know yet who did the attack but if the conflict in the southeast of Turkey continues and Turkey keeps fighting with the PKK and they don't go back to the negotiation table, of course there's going to be more violence in Turkey in general."
"It looks very serious because this is one of the few times that civilians have been bombed in the capital, and the bombing took place in an area where a lot of civilians commute. The first attack in Ankara targeted a military target, and this one seems to be targeting civilians."
http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160 ... syria.html
Wladimir van Wilgenburg: one of the extremely few people who actually know what is happening to the Kurds and one of the even fewer people who genuinely cares
Wladimir van Wilgenburg is a political analyst specializing in issues concerning Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey with a particular focus on Kurdish politics. In 2011 van Wilgenburg received an MA from the University of Utrecht’s Conflict Studies and Human Rights program. There he completed his MA dissertation on the Iraqi city of Kirkuk’s Arab political spectrum. Much of his work was based on first-hand research and interviews conducted by van Wilgenburg on the ground in Iraq. He is currently enrolled in the University of Exeter’s MA Kurdish Studies program. Van Wilgenburg is a contributor to the Jamestown Foundation’s book Volatile Landscape: Iraq and Its Insurgent Movements. He has also written extensively for Jamestown’s well-regarded Terrorism Monitor and Militant Leadership Monitor publications. In addition to Jamestown, he currently writes for Rudaw, an online Kurdish newspaper based in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan that publishes in English, and Kurdish. Van Wilgenburg provides commentary and advice to a variety of media outlets such as the SETimes.com, and a various number of NGOs and think tanks.
