An article entitled “Not All Kurdish Factions are Equal: The PKK’s History of Violence in Turkey” by IWP student Baris Ersoy was published by Breitbart.com on July 28.
In light of the PKK’s recent string of assassinations of police officers, it is unethical and naive to think that the US should unconditionally support any and all Kurdish entities as a counter-balance to radical Islamism.
A recent terror attack in the town of Suruç targeted a group of ultra-leftist Kurdish students who were intending to cross into Syria to help with the rebuilding efforts in Kobane. The suicide bomber was a Turkish IS operative. The PKK (The Kurdish Workers’ Party) accused the Turkish government of the attack and assassinated a soldier, two police officers, and three civilians in retaliation, and threatens to launch additional attacks.
The incident constitutes a terrorist organization protesting a terror attack by another terrorist organization by launching a terror attack. Since 1986, the PKK has murdered thousands of civilians with the deliberate agenda of forcing concessions from a weary public – the very premise of terrorism. The fact that the PKK (and its Syrian offshoot PYD) may be protecting the Kurds and the Yazidis from falling into IS’ hands does not negate the fact that they are terrorists. In fact, even in attemping to help Yazidis in Iraq, the PKK’s history precedes it, and the Kurdish government there has warned them not to stay. They are terrorists not because they want an independent Kurdistan, but because of their methodologies.