Is PKK becoming a new Middle East power ? - Kadri Gursel
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/08/turkey-iraq-syria-kurds-pkk-middle-east-new-power.html
The PYD has long contended that Jabhat al-Nusra and IS jihadists, who began attacking Syrian Kurds in the summer of 2012, receive support from Ankara and are allowed to use Turkish territory to mount their attacks.
Those claims are quite credible. It is hard to imagine how the jihadists would have managed to put strong military pressure on the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the PYD’s armed wing, in areas neighboring Turkey — Ras al-Ain, Kobani and Afrin — without using Turkish territory. Yet, the PYD has been able to hold on to these three regions and resist the jihadists for more than two years. Hence, long before IS’ capture of Mosul, the PKK already deserved to be recognized as the Middle East’s only fighting force to defy and resist IS for the struggle it has waged in Rojava.
