PKK being ‘legitimized,’ Turkish army chief says - POLITICS
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The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), an offshoot of the PKK, are being legitimized thanks to their fight against jihadists in Syria, Turkish Chief of Staff Gen. Necdet Özel has said.
“The developments in the Middle East and North Africa make it hard to have optimistic predictions. The current situation in Iraq and Syria caused [the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] ISIL to get stronger amid the flow of radical fighters into the region. It also caused the PKK and PYD to be seen as a legitimate force fighting against ISIL rather than focusing on their identity as a terror organization,” he said.
“The separatists terror organization [PKK] is attempting to increase its gains in Syria and Iraq, as well as to create a public perception that its extensions in the other countries are innocent groups,” Özel said in an interview with Defense and Aviation Magazine.
Özel also warned that the risk of a conventional war in the region had not yet disappeared, recalling the conflicts and polarizations based on economic interests and decreasing resources.
